Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Mar 21: Amidst the exchange of barbs between various non-BJP parties for supremacy in the opposition ranks ahead of the 2024 Parliamentary elections, the Congress on Tuesday attacked the Trinamool Congress and the West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee for her criticism of Rahul Gandhi.
Stepping up its counter-attack over Banerjee’s TRP swipe at Rahul Gandhi, Pawan Khera, Congress’s spokesperson and head of its media and publicity department, accused the TMC of functioning as a B team of the BJP to attack the Congress for the benefit of the saffron party.
He alleged that Banerjee was hand-in-glove with the prime minister Narendra Modi and the ruling party to demolish other opposition parties as she wanted to protect herself against ED-CBI raids.
Terming the remark “His Master’s Voice,” Khera said it was clear that the West Bengal Chief Minister made the statement at the behest of the ruling BJP. “During our childhood, music records of the company HMV — His Master’s Voice — came from Kolkata. HMV, His Master’s Voice, is still coming from Kolkata. I am speaking about Mamata Banerjee’s remark,” he said. “Who does this statement help? Why isn’t that being put forward? Who must have smiled after seeing this remark on TV: the BJP. You know who this is being done for,” he added.
At an internal meeting of her party on Monday, Ms Banerjee had reportedly told her supporters that nobody would be able to target Prime Minister Narendra Modi if Rahul Gandhi was the face of the Opposition. The Chief Minister, sources said, had told party workers that Mr Gandhi is Prime Minister Modi’s “biggest TRP”. The BJP, she apparently alleged, is not letting Parliament function as they are “keen on making Rahul Gandhi a hero”.
“It is the Congress that bows before the BJP. Congress, CPM and BJP are instigating minorities against the Trinamool,” she told party workers in Murshidabad in a virtual address from Kolkata. Her remarks came after the Trinamool lost a seat to the Congress in area in the recently held by-election.
Her remarks against the Congress followed a recent meeting she had with the Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav in Kolkata in which the two leaders discussed maintaining equidistance from both the BJP and the Congress pointing out that the BJP wanted to project Rahul Gandhi as the face of the opposition and act consistently to demolish his image to create a vacuum amidst Modi’s rivals.
The Congress hit back, alleging a pact between the Trinamool chief and the Prime Minister to “defame the image of Rahul Gandhi and the Congress.” Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, the Congress’ leader in Lok Sabha and its Bengal unit chief, said “Mamata Banerjee is speaking on the directions of the PM. Modi and ‘didi’ have a deal to defame the image of Rahul Gandhi and Congress. She wants to save herself from ED-CBI raids that’s why she is against Congress and with this PM will be happy.”
The exchange of barbs between the two Opposition parties comes amid hectic posturing among political forces for the general election due next year. With the Congress performing poorly in most recent elections, regional parties are likely to flex muscles and demand a greater say if any joint Opposition block is formed. Several Opposition parties have also floated the idea of a non-Congress, non-BJP front.
Miffed by her party’s recent bypoll defeat, Ms Banerjee recently announced that Trinamool will contest the 2024 polls alone. “In 2024, we will see an alliance between Trinamool and the people. We will not go with any of the other political parties. We will fight alone with people’s support.”
The SP chief Akhilesh Yadav had after his meeting with Banerjee spoke of an Opposition front without Congress. He went on to say that the Grand Old party is a national party and it needs to decide its own role in the current situation while ensuring that no third front was created which would only indirectly benefit the BJP.