Hours after Bihar Chief Minister and Janata Dal (United) chief Nitish Kumar switched sides and joined the NDA, the entire Grand Alliance including the Congress is upset with him, but internally there is also fear.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, while addressing the people during the Bharat Jodo Nyaya Yatra in the eastern state of West Bengal on Sunday evening, not only appealed to Mamata Banerjee through gestures but also vented out his anger on Nitish.
Rahul said that if Bengal does not show the right path to the country, India will not forgive it.
Rahul Gandhi also accused the BJP-led central government of spreading hatred and violence across the country and working for big corporate houses while ignoring the interests of the poor and youth.
Addressing the crowd from the top of an SUV in Siliguri city of North Bengal, Rahul Gandhi made this statement after the announcement by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, in which Mamata had said that her party would win all the seats in West Bengal. But she will contest the elections alone.
Launching Bharat Jodo Nyay from Bengal after a two-day break, Rahul Gandhi said, “No other state has shown me as much love as you have.
Bengal has a special place in my heart. The people here took the initiative to fight the British. It is your duty to show the way to the country as shown by Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose or Vivekananda. If you don’t do this, the country will not forgive you.”
Nitish Kumar is giving tough competition to Chameleon
Calling Nitish Kumar a “chameleon”, Congress General Secretary Jairam Ramesh said on Sunday that Nitish Kumar is giving a tough competition to even the chameleon in changing colours. On Mamata’s anger in Bengal, he said that TMC is the “pillar of the India alliance”. He said, “We fight the Left in Kerala but at the national level we are all against the BJP. Mamta ji’s main goal is to defeat BJP. This is our mission too.”
TMC-Congress clash over seat sharing
Let us tell you that Congress and Mamata’s party TMC have not been able to agree on seat sharing for the Lok Sabha elections 2024. BJP had won 18 out of 42 seats in Bengal in 2019.
On the other hand, Mamata Banerjee wants to contest elections on all 42 seats including two seats controlled by Congress. Meanwhile, Congress state president Adhir Ranjan Choudhary is a harsh critic of Chief Minister Banerjee and insists that the Congress should contest elections on six to eight seats, which will be covered during the Bharat Jodo Nyaya Yatra.
While accompanying Chaudhary, Rahul Gandhi neither mentioned the sudden crisis in Bihar nor the impasse over seat sharing in Bengal.
Rahul Gandhi said, “The intellectual capacity of the people of Bengal is unique. This can unite the country. It is your responsibility.”
Political experts believe that Rahul Gandhi’s comments could be an appeal to Banerjee, who earlier this week had apparently backed out of her proposal to give up the Berhampur and Malda South seats in Bengal. Congress has been winning since 1999 and 2009 respectively. One of these seats, Berhampur, is with Chaudhary.