By IANS,
Kolkata: Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee Saturday said the people of West Bengal had given the Congress a “golden chance” to “rescue” the state from the Left and that the party expects “due respect” from its alliance partner at the centre in the electoral politics of the state.
“We hope that our partner will also give due respect to the Congress considering the norms of coalition politics. It should not turn into a ‘one-party system’ and we all have to take care of that,” Mukherjee, who is also the state Congress president, said at the party’s three-day-long ‘chintan shivir’ Saturday.
Mukherjee did not name the Trinamool Congress but the allusion was obvious.
“After decades, the people have given us a golden chance to rescue this state from the clutches of the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M). We should not lose this opportunity,” he said.
The state Congress began its meeting at the CMS School ground in Nadia district’s Krishnanagar Friday.
“We must remember the popular adage that united we stand and divided we fall. No party should take any sudden decision that it affects the image of the electoral alliance in the state,” he said in his address.
The Congress fought the April-May Lok Sabha this year with the Trinamool Congress and the alliance won 26 out of 42 seats in the state.
Admitting the problem of inner party feuds, Mukherjee said, “Congress is not a one-man party. Thus we never use the term ‘I’. We believe in sharing the credit with everyone.”
He said the Congress would continue to work as an anti-Left political force in the state.
“It’s true that in present scenario we would not be able to come up with the highest majority in the state assembly. But if anyone thinks of forming an anti-left political force in this state, they have to include Congress in that,” he said.