Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Derek O’ Brien on Thursday alleged that it is because of West Bengal Congress chief Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury that the Opposition alliance was not working in West Bengal.
His remarks came a day after West Bengal Chief Minister and TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee announced that she will contest the Lok Sabha elections “alone” in the state and there will be no alliance with the Congress party.
“Three reasons for the alliance not working in Bengal – Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury and Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury,” O’Brien told reporters.
He added that the Opposition alliance ‘INDIA’, a grouping of 28 parties to take on the BJP-led NDA in the Lok Sabha elections, had many detractors, but only two have repeatedly spoken against the front. They are the BJP and Chowdhury, said the TMC leader.
He also siad that the Chowdhury was working at the behest of the BJP.
“The voice is his, but the words are being dictated to him by the duo in Delhi. In the past two years, Adhir Chowdhury has spoken the language of the BJP. Not once has he raised the issue of Bengal being deprived of central funds,” O’Brien said.
He added that Chowdhury also endorses actions by the Enforcement Directorate in Bengal when they are against the TMC, and holds “special press conferences to belittle” Mamata Banerjee and “barely speaks against BJP leaders”.
Brien also said that if the Congress successfully defeats the BJP on a substantial number of seats in the Lok Sabha elections, the TMC will be a party of the INDIA front that “believes and fights for Constitution and plurality”.