On Tuesday (23rd January), Congress scion Rahul Gandhi publicly snubbed party leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury after he declared that Congress would fight elections in West Bengal without the assistance of the Trinamool Congress.
While speaking about the matter during his ‘Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra’, Gandhi remarked, “Mamata Banerjee is very close to me. Sometimes our leaders say something. Such comments won’t matter.”
He added that talks with the Trinamool Congress on seat-sharing in West Bengal for the 2024 Lok Sabha election were underway.
On Saturday (20th January), Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury hit out at Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee and called her an ‘opportunist.’ The development came hours after media reports suggested that the TMC was planning to avoid seat-sharing with Congress and field candidates in all Lok Sabha constituencies.
He said, “We won’t fight the election with Mamata’s help. Congress knows how to fight on its own strength, and Mamata Banerjee should remember that it was with Congress’s support she came to power in Bengal.”
Reportedly, TMC had offered only 2 seats to the grand old party while it was hoping for a larger share of seats. In the meantime, Rahul Gandhi had invited Mamata Banerjee to join his ‘Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra’ when it would pass through the State of West Bengal.
Mamata Banerjee throws Rahul Gandhi under the bus
In December last year, TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee squarely blamed Congress scion Rahul Gandhi after a video of Kalyan Banerjee mimicking and ridiculing Indian Vice-President Jagdeep Dhankhar went viral on social media.
It must be mentioned that Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress is a member of the I.N.D.I. Alliance propped by the Congress party in the hopes of defeating the Narendra Modi-led-BJP government in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
But she did not think twice before throwing Rahul Gandhi under the bus and protecting her own party member Kalyan Banerjee.