By IANS,
Kolkata: The Trinamool Congress Thursday night scoffed at Rahul Gandhi’s comments that the Congress party would go it alone in next year’s West Bengal assembly polls if it was not treated with respect.
A top Trinamool leader said if the Congress carried out its threat, people would think the party was only interested in keeping the Marxists in power in the state.
“The common people of West Bengal have already taken a decision to uproot the misrule of CPI-M (Communist Party of India- Marxist) from the state. If Congress becomes our ally in this fight then it’s okay. We want the Congress as our allies.
“But if it doesn’t come with us then people will think they want to keep CPI-M in power,” Trinamool MP Somen Mitra told IANS.
Mitra, a former state Congress president, joined the Trinamool before last year’s Lok Sabha polls.
Gandhi earlier in the day told mediapersons that though his party wanted to partner the Trinamool in the state assembly polls next year, it would go it alone if it was not treated with respect.
Trinamool Youth Congress chief Suvendu Adhikary said Gandhi seems to have been given a wrong perception about his party.
“Our main aim is to defeat the CPI-M in West Bengal. We want an alliance of all secular forces to defeat the CPI-M. Whatever Rahul Gandhi said it is his own opinion. I won’t comment on it. I don’t think it is appropriate to comment on it.
“And I feel maybe he was given a wrong perception about Trinamool Congress by his own state leaders,” Adhikary told IANS.
“The seat sharing deal with the Congress will depend on the situation at that time. Our leader Mamata Banerjee will decide on it. It’s too early too comment on it,” said Adhikary, when asked if Gandhi’s comment could have an adverse effect on the seat sharing between the two parties.
The Trinamool Congress and Congress combine, along with the Socialist Unity Centre of India (SUCI), bagged 26 out of 42 Lok Sabha seats in 2009 Lok Sabha elections.
But during civic elections in 2010 both Trinamool Congress and Congress failed to clinch a seat sharing deal and decided to go it alone.
State Congress leaders have repeatedly alleged that the Trinamool did not treat them with due respect.