A day after the lone Congress legislator in West Bengal crossed over to the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC), the latter on Tuesday maintained that though state level compulsions exist, but the national opposition unity talks remain on track.
TMC’s Rajya Sabha leader Derek O’Brien said that West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday maintained that all Opposition parties are together at the national level.
“On Tuesday, our leader Mamata Banerjee said we are all together at the national level. But the state parties have their own obligations,” he said. Banerjee’s distinction between the politics in state and that at the national level comes amid efforts being made to bring Opposition parties together to take on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the 2024 general elections.
In Bengal, the Congress and the Communist Party of India (Marxist) have an alliance against the TMC.
Earlier in the day, however, the two parties blamed each other for working against the opposition unity.
Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh lashed out at the TMC for “poaching” the lone Congress MLA, Bayron Biswas. “Three months after he was elected as a Congress MLA in a historic victory Bayron Biswas has been lured away by the TMC in West Bengal. This is a complete betrayal of the mandate of the people of the Sagardighi Assembly constituency,” Ramesh tweeted. “Such poaching which has happened earlier in Goa, Meghalaya, Tripura and other states is not designed to strengthen Opposition unity and only serves the BJP’s objectives.”
Hitting back, O’Brien tweeted: “‘Despite Mamata Banerjee’s support Congress vows to fight Mamata Banerjee in Bengal’ Statement from Congress two weeks ago. Congress breaches trust on Opposition unity and then expects bouquets of roses! And about strengthening BJP? Grow up please.”