Just a couple of days after Congress party’s leader in Lok Sabha, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, attacked Trinamool Congress (TMC) in the Parliament, senior Congress leader P. Chidambaram has said in an interview that the party is willing to be the junior partner of TMC in Bengal. Chidambaram also expressed a willingness to be Aam Aadmi Party’s junior partner in Delhi and Punjab.
Speaking to Nidhi Razdan on the ironically named NDTV show ‘No Spin’, Chidambaram said that in order to mount a fight against BJP in 2024, Congress will have to cede leadership position to TMC in Bengal, and AAP in Delhi and Punjab. While most of the interview was aimed at defending the leadership of the Gandhi family, Chidambaram did give these hints towards party strategy in 2024.
He said that the way DMK is the leader of the alliance in Tamil Nadu, a similar model can be used in other states. Congress is already the junior partner of RJD in Bihar and is the junior-most partner in the Mahavikas Agadi alliance in Maharashtra. They have also been junior partners of the Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh in the past.
This statement from a senior Congress leader comes just 2 days after the party was raising the issue of state-backed violence in Bengal. During the zero-hours in Lok Sabha, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury had blamed TMC and local Bengal police for the murder of Congress councillor Tapan Kandu in West Bengal.
Chowdhury also demanded a CBI probe in the murder of Congress councillor expressing his lack of faith in the local West Bengal Police.
During his interview with Nidhi Razdan, Chidambaram also addressed the issue of the vacant Congress President post. He said that they will not advance the election for the post of Party President, as Sonia Gandhi approaches 3 years in the position of ‘interim President’.