Kolkata: During his campaign in Murshidabad’s Raghunathganj, Trinamool Congress (TMC) national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee accused the Congress and the Left in Bengal of trying to strengthen the hands of the BJP.
He also asserted that the future of the INDIA bloc depends, to a large extent, on the performance of TMC in Bengal in the Lok Sabha elections. “The future of the INDIA bloc depends to a large extent on how the TMC performs in West Bengal... BJP will be astonished to see the results (of Lok Sabha polls) on June 4. A democratic and secular government will be established in Delhi,” he said. Banerjee was campaigning in the Murshidabad Parliamentary constituency where the Congress and the Left have a stronghold if the election history of the seat is something to go by. However, in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, TMC wrested the seat from CPI(M).
Trinamool has fielded Abu Taher Khan who was also the candidate in 2019. In a seat-sharing agreement, the Congress is supporting the CPI(M) candidate Md. Salim. Abhishek discouraged people from voting for Congress and the Left. He alleged that both parties are working for the BJP and it is only the TMC which is on the ground fighting for Bengal. Accusing the Bengal Congress chief Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury of double standards, Banerjee said: “On one hand Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi were sitting beside Didi (Mamata) in Maharashtra, Delhi and other places where INDIA meeting took place and planned to oust BJP while on the other hand their (Congress) branch manager in Bengal, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury along with Left’s Md Salim was using foul words against me and my party.”
“We wanted seat-sharing to be decided soon to take on BJP. We wanted that in the states where the regional parties are strong, they should take on the BJP. But Congress was unclear in their opinion regarding this,” he alleged.
He added that in the Mumbai meeting when Sonia Gandhi was telling Mamata Banerjee to fight together to defeat BJP, in Jalpaiguri, Adhir Chowdhury was abusing TMC and Banerjee. People have identified the real traitor who is making the BJP strong in Bengal, he said. Alluding to BJP, he said: “Two days back they attempted to kill me but due to timely intervention by Kolkata Police, the accused was held and the sinister plot was thwarted.
I am not worried about my life. I will continue to work for people. If people continue to support me no force can do anything wrong to me.”