Lal Krishna Advani, BJP?s Prime Ministerial candidate and the leader of the Opposition, on Friday echoed Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee?s frequently-used comment that the Congress is the B team of the CPI(M) in West Bengal, though he did not utter a single word on her move to strike an alliance with the Congress in the forthcoming general polls.
Advani, while addressing a BJP workers? convention here on Friday, said there was an unsigned agreement between the Congress and the CPI(M) that both the parties would act as political supplement to each other. ?While the Congress would remain a B team of the CPI(M) in West Bengal, for the rest of the country, their roles would be reversed,? Advani said.
In fact, it was Mamata who had first dubbed the Congress the B team of the CPI(M) in West Bengal when she formed the Trinamool Congress in 1997.
Advani without naming Banerjee gave a clear hint that the TMC was compromising on its political principles.
He said in most of the states voters do have a clear choice between the Congress or its allies and the BJP or its like-minded parties. But in West Bengal, voters really don?t have a choice. Both the Congress and the CPI(M) field candidates against each other, ?but those are never real wrestlings, but only game shows, where players actually don?t fight against each other,? Advani said.
Advani in his speech drew reference from an Indian Statistical Institute study, which says that the BPL (below the poverty line) population grew by 5.5 crore to 32 crore during the UPA regime. He again referred to the study while saying that 14 of the state?s 18 districts find place in the list of India?s 100 most poor districts.