Mamata rules out alliance with ‘terrorist’ CPI(M), mum on Congress

Addressing a government event at Jaynagar in South 24 Parganas, Mamata said she would fight against the BJP and Left. “The terrorist party CPI(M) is helping the BJP. For 34 years, it has played with people’s minds and I will not have any understanding with it. Today they sit in front of the camera and talk. What did they do for 34 years (while they were in power)? How much allowance did people get? Over 20,000 people got government jobs (in the TMC’s tenure). During their regime, people got nothing.”

A senior party leader reiterated Mamata’s stance. “Since its inception, the TMC has fought against the CPI(M). It was obvious that there would be no alliance. The CM has also made it clear now,” he said.

Last week, the CPI(M) too had ruled out any alliance with the TMC with general secretary Sitaram Yechury saying it was difficult for the three – CPI(M), Congress and TMC – to come onto a common platform in the state. “We will continue to fight the BJP on a national level as a part of the INDIA bloc but will never have an understanding with the TMC in Bengal,” he had said.

On Sunday, CPI(M) State Secretary Md Selim accused the TMC of having a tacit understanding with the BJP to shield its leaders from central agencies. “The corrupt TMC can never genuinely confront the BJP. It has a clandestine understanding with the BJP to shield its leaders from the scrutiny of the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate (ED),” he said.

The CPI(M) leader also alleged that corruption in the ruling party had increased after the BJP came to power at the Centre in 2014. “Chowkidar agar chor hai toh pakdega kaun (If the watchman is a thief, who will we catch)?” he questioned.

A section of the Congress too is against breaking its alliance with the Left party, giving rise to a possible scenario of both the parties not allying with the TMC for the Lok Sabha elections.

The Congress and TMC too have been at loggerheads over seat-sharing after reports emerged that the ruling party was ready to leave only two of the 42 Lok Sabha seats in the state for the grand old party. The move had prompted strong reactions from state Congress chief and Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, who said he did not need Banerjee’s pity.

“Mamata Banerjee does not want an alliance. That is why she has let it known that she was willing to give two seats (that the Congress currently has) to the Congress. Her statements on alliance have no credibility. Had she been sincere, she should have expressed regret on the attacks that had been taking place on the Opposition (in Bengal), he had told The Indian Express.

Though Banerjee refrained from speaking about the Congress on Tuesday, TMC West Bengal General Secretary Kunal Ghosh took the grand old party on without naming it. “Sometimes, children in front of tea stalls demand 10 or 20 biscuits without realising that they are capable of eating only three or four,” he said in an apparent reference to the Congress’s demand for more Lok Sabha seats in the state.

The remark did not go down well with the Congress, with party spokesperson Soumya Aich Roy accusing Ghosh of misleading people. “We are and will continue to fight against the TMC’s corrupt practices,” he said.

The Congress and the TMC have collided head-on over the assault on an ED team in Sandeshkhali village of North 24 Parganas district when it arrived to raid the house of block-level TMC functionaries Shahjahan Sheikh and Shankar Adhya.

“After the attack by goons of the ruling government on ED officials, it is clear that there is no law and order in the state. Today, they were injured, tomorrow they can be murdered,” Chowdhury said and talked about President’s Rule in the state.