NEW DELHI: While the Congress in Bengal is going all out against the ruling Trinamool Congress, a senior leader of the party has said that it may support Mamata Banerjee post elections if the need arises.
“If a situation arises post elections, we will support the TMC to form government in West Bengal, this is my personal opinion. This is because of philosophical reasons,” said veteran Congress MP Abu Hasem Khan Choudhury on Tuesday.
“We don’t like TMC because of the behaviour they meted out to the Congress. But TMC is not communal,” said the Congress MP from Maldaha Dakshin.
However, the Congress MP’s “personal opinion” could be potentially embarrassing for the party which has tied up with the Left and is campaigning aggressively against the ruling Trinamool Congress.
Recently when Mamata Banerjee was injured in Nandigram on the day she filed her nomination papers, senior Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said the “chief minister was indulging in hypocrisy to gain sympathy.”
“This is ‘siyasi pakhand’ (hypocrisy) to gain sympathy. Before polls, she (Mamata Banerjee) planned this ‘nautanki’ after sensing difficulties in Nandigram,” Adhir Ranjan had said.
Abu Hasem Khan Choudhary also slammed the CPM for its alliance with Abbas Siddiqui-led Indian Secular Front (ISF).
“We did not join hands with Abbas Siddiqui, CPM allied with his party. I think they felt that they may not get a single seat in the elections, so they forged an alliance with him,” he said.
“We forged an alliance with the Left at first, then they went and allied with Siddiqui. We told them that we did not like it but they were scared that they may perform badly in the elections. So, they joined hands with Abbas, if he can get them eight-ten seats in the name of religion,” he added.
There have been divisions within the Congress over the presence of ISF in the alliance. Senior leader Anand Sharma had questioned the association with ISF. His observations had evoked strong reactions from Adhir Ranjan, who accused Sharma of helping the “polarising agenda of the BJP.”
No comments, says CPM leader
“The Samjukta Morcha of the Left-Congress-ISF has been formed at the state-level after green-signal from Delhi. There is no doubt that we will fight this election together. He is a senior leader, I don’t know what he has said and will not comment on it,” CPM’s Malda district secretary Ambar Mitra said.
Unholy alliance exposed: BJP
The BJP, meanwhile, called it a “unholy” alliance, which will help the TMC form government in case of a hung assembly.
“We have been saying from the beginning that an unholy alliance has been forged in West Bengal and it will help the TMC in the future. Choudhury’s comments make this thing clear that they will support TMC in case of a hung assembly,” BJP’s district vice-president Ajoy Ganguly said.
(With inputs from PTI)