Leader of Congress in Lok Sabha, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury on Wednesday, December 1, went on an unhinged rant against Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee accusing her of being involved in coal and cow smuggling rackets. Furious at her recent jibes against the UPA (United Progressive Alliance) and Rahul Gandhi, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, while addressing media, hit back saying that if politicians can go abroad to stash illegal money earned from coal scams and cow smuggling rackets, then why can’t our leader go on foreign trips for personal work.
A furious @adhirrcinc hits out at @MamataOfficial ‘s #UPA dead barb: There was a time when due to the pity of UPA, she had won. She is talking about foreign trips. At least trips are not being made to deposit money earned through illegal cattle smuggling. pic.twitter.com/K8rR315jtc
— Anindya (@AninBanerjee) December 1, 2021
Chowdhury lambasted saying that “Didi (referring to Mamata Banerjee) also visits Italy but sings against Congress.” He was astounded that while she was a member of the UPA, she did not consider it to be a foreign party, but now she does.
It may be noted that Chowdhury was responding to Mamata Banerjee’s remark during an interaction with members of the civil society in Mumbai Wednesday, where she said: “If one does nothing and is abroad half the time, then how will one do politics? For politics, there should be continuous endeavour.”
The West Bengal Chief Minister’s statement was primarily seen as a dig at Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, who recently vacationed abroad. Mamata Banerjee had also claimed that the UPA no longer exists.
Further, castigating Mamata Banerjee for her double standards, Chowdhury claimed that this is the same UPA that Mamata Banerjee supported in 2012 when she had her six members in the party and that now that she is no longer a member of the party, she is slandering the party’s image. He charged the Trinamool Congress supremo with being ungrateful, asserting that for her narrow political interest she is trying to belittle the grand old party which had supported her in the past.
Chowdhury also alleged that Mamata Banerjee and PM Modi were working together to weaken the Congress and defend their own interests.
On Wednesday, December 1, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee courted controversy with her “What’s UPA” remark.
To a question from the media on her meeting with Sharad Pawar in Mumbai and whether she believed the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader should lead the UPA (United Progressive Alliance), Banerjee snubbed the Congress by exclaiming: “What UPA? There is no UPA now? What is the UPA? We will clear all issues. We want a strong alternative,” she said.
The Trinamool Congress chief is on a three-day visit to Mumbai to meet leaders of the Shiv Sena and NCP (both Congress allies), amid a widening rift with the Congress.
It may be noted that West Bengal Congress president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury has been a vocal critic of the TMC supremo. Days after Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan Khan was arrested by the Narcotics Control Bureau(NCB) after a raid on a Goa-bound cruise ship, Chowdhury had questioned Mamata Banerjee’ ‘stoic silence’ on the issue. He had alleged that the West Bengal CM, who was normally quite vociferous on all issues, was keeping quiet in a desperate attempt to placate her ‘BJP cronies’.
