By IANS,
New Delhi: A senior Congress MP from West Bengal Monday said Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee and her Trinamool Congress emerged a strong force in state as the Congress failed to play a “proactive” role against the Left Front government.
“The Congress party was not proactive in the state. People realised that Mamata played a pro-active leadership role (in the opposition) while the Congress simply kept itself mute and mum,” Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, a third time MP from Baharampur, told IANS on the phone.
He, however, did not see the Trinamool Congress as a viable alternative to the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) led government, which has been ruling the state for the last 33 years.
“The people who were opposing the CPI-M joined the Trinamool Congress, though it is not a viable alternative against the Left,” said Chowdhury, a close confidante of senior Congress leader and Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee.
The Congress has became the junior partner to the Trinamool Congress, which Banerjee formed Jan 1, 1998 after quitting the Congress in 1997.
Chowdhury said that the Congress and the Trinamool Congress would together unseat the Marxists from power in West Bengal where they have been uninterruptedly enjoying power, making both friends and foes envious.
“There is no doubt that their (Left’s) days are numbered. Both the Congress and the Trinamool Congress are united with a single objective to unseat the CPI-M led government in the state,” Chowdhury said.
The Congress leader said the CPI-M and the Left Front flourished in the state with the support of their dedicated workers and peasants.
“However, after the incidents in Nandigram and Singur, their workers saw the true colour of the Marxists. Now, they have said good-bye to the CPI-M. It was reflected in the Lok Sabha polls last year and recent civic polls,” Chowdhury said.
The Left Front has been going through its worst phase since last year, when it was defeated in the Lok Sabha polls by the Trinamool Congress. Its electoral misfortunes have continued in assembly by-polls and two rounds of civic polls, where it faced a rout.