Kolkata: Refusing to consider the Indian Secular Front (ISF) a formidable opponent, Trinamool Congress (TMC) Diamond Harbour MP Abhishek Banerjee, on Monday, said anyone is free to fight him from this Parliamentary seat in the Lok Sabha election while calling the Congress a “Trojan Horse” of the BJP.
ISF chief Naushad Siddiqui recently made his intentions clear of contesting from the Diamond Harbour constituency in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls while accusing the TMC of using minorities as vote banks.
On Monday, when Abhishek’s reaction was sought on the matter, he told the media that anyone is free to contest since it is the people who have the last word in a democracy.
Asked if TMC is still part of the INDIA bloc, he said that his party will remain a part of it but stated that the seat-sharing talks with Congress failed mostly due to the state Congress chief Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury. “How many times has he criticised the BJP for its dictatorship and its misuse of central agencies against opposition parties? He has only been attacking and insulting chief minister Mamata Banerjee who has been at the forefront in battling the BJP,” he said.
He said that Adhir’s remarks have only time and again indicated that he is hand in gloves with the BJP and that Congress is working as the “Trojan Horse ‘’ of the saffron brigade. Abhishek said that the Nabajowar Yatra which he had undertaken ahead of the panchayat polls helped change his perspective in politics and taught him that it is the people whose will makes or breaks political leaders.
Asked if Nitish Kumar’s switchover will affect the INDIA bloc’s alliance, he said that Kumar is a senior politician and the latter decided to have again jumped sides. However, Abhishek said that once a leader loses credibility in the eyes of the people, it is the end of their political career.