Trinamul Congress defends Goa foray

The party said it had taken the plunge in election-bound state because the Congress made no move over the past few months to rally non-BJP parties together

Mamata Banerjee: File picture

Anita Joshua   |   TT  |  New Delhi   |   27.10.21: The Trinamul Congress on Tuesday tried to answer the Congress charge of breaking Opposition unity, saying it had taken the plunge in election-bound Goa because the Congress made no move over the past few months to rally non-BJP parties together.

Trinamul’s high-voltage bid to try and become the main challenger to the BJP in Goa has upset the Congress, which was hoping to gain from anti-incumbency sentiments in next year’s Assembly elections.

Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee is scheduled to visit Goa on Thursday, and the Trinamul drum roll for the elections has begun.

Trinamul has focused its attention on Goa and Tripura, where it has not been a player at all, to try and remain part of the electoral narrative ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. Tripura votes in 2023.

The seemingly endless drift in the Congress and the reluctance of several regional parties like the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the YSR Congress to work with the Grand Old Party have given Trinamul the hope of becoming the rallying point for the Opposition.

Addressing the charge of weakening the efforts to build Opposition unity, Trinamul MP Sukhendu Sekhar Roy told journalists in Delhi that Mamata had met all senior non-BJP politicians during her July visit to Delhi.

During the trip, Mamata had urged Congress president Sonia Gandhi to take the lead in framing a common plan of action for a joint battle against the Modi-Shah duopoly in 2024, Roy added.

“We waited for the Congress to take the initiative but it seems to us that the Congress party is busy with its internal issues. So we decided that we cannot wait indefinitely as five Assembly elections are round the corner,” Ray said.

He stressed that every party has a right to expand its footprint across the country.

Roy dismissed the charge against Trinamul of poaching from other parties on a day former Mahila Congress president Sushmita Dev was sworn in as a Rajya Sabha member from Trinamul.

“We are not poaching. Every individual has a right to join any party. When Kanhaiya Kumar left the CPI to join the Congress, was it poaching?” he retorted.

On fears that Trinamul would divide the anti-BJP vote in Goa, Sushmita said: “It is a fact that the Congress and Trinamul contested against each other in the Bengal elections. We did not ask, ‘Why are you contesting against us?’”

She added: “In Tripura and Bengal, the Congress is nothing but a signboard. Yet it contests elections in both states. We understand that in a democracy every party has to look for political space.”

Sushmita said that in the Bengal Assembly elections earlier this year, Trinamul had shown that it can do fearless politics and that it’s a party ready to fight on the streets.

Trinamul believes it can grow in Goa riding the 28 per cent minority vote, reckoning that the Congress has lost the perception battle with 10 of its MLAs crossing over to the BJP after the 2017 Assembly elections.