In a development that may raise questions for the central leadership of the Congress party, a leader from West Bengal has voiced confusion within the party regarding its support for the Trinamool Congress (TMC) at the national level within the INDIA bloc while maintaining opposition to the TMC within the state.

In an email to Congress’ Rajya Sabha MP and general secretary (Organisation), KC Venugopal, West Bengal leader and advocate, Koustav Bagchi, strongly criticised the way Congress and the INDIA bloc showed solidarity with TMC general secretary Abhishek Banerjee by keeping a chair vacant during a coordination committee meeting of the Opposition alliance.

“Please do not stand in solidarity with those people who always had attempted to decimate our party in the state of West Bengal, looted the state of West Bengal, mercilessly throttled the democracy in the state,” Bagchi’s email reads.

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“The investigations pursuant to which the uncrowned prince of West Bengal was summoned by the ED is a court monitored one and the order for ED investigation was directed by the Hon’ble High Court of Calcutta,” he further wrote.

Since the establishment of the INDIA bloc, Bagchi has consistently opposed the alliance between the Congress and the TMC. Notably, on the same day that the INDIA bloc expressed solidarity with Banerjee, the Congress state president in West Bengal, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, publicly stated, “Every thief should be sent behind bars.”

Bagchi’s email reflects the confusion within the West Bengal unit, as the central leadership supports Banerjee while the state unit opposes the TMC.

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“Thousands of Congress workers in the state of West Bengal have been relentlessly fighting against this tyrannical regime. Standing in solidarity with the tyrants and scamsters are an insult to the party workers in the state of West Bengal,” he asserted.

It is worth noting that in the recently-concluded Dhupguri bypoll, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and Congress had fielded a joint candidate against the TMC. However, their candidate did not secure victory, finishing third after the TMC and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).