By IANS,
Kolkata : With Congress against losing a “valued partner” like Mamata Banerjee, the party high command Friday instructed the West Bengal leadership to settle all outstanding issues with the Trinamool Congress.
“We want these local issues to be sorted out between the Trinamool leadership and the state Congress leadership. It doesn’t look well that alliance partners are fighting each other just after six months of coming to power,” said Shakeel Ahmed, Congress general secretary in charge of West Bengal.
“I have asked the state Congress leadership to sit with the Trinamool leadership and sort out the issues. I have also requested the Trinamool leadership to sit and solve the issues. Mamata Banerjee is our valued partner and she is a valued partner of UPA (United Progressive Alliance). We don’t want any bitterness this is not good for any alliance,” he said.
The relationship between the Trinamool and state Congress unit have witnessed lot of bitterness in last 15 days, after Congress took out protest rallies against the government over the issue of renaming Indira Bhawan after the name of a revolutionary poet.
State Irrigation Minister and Congress leader Manas Bhuniya had also blamed the state government for their alleged mismanagement of state agriculture as a reason behind the plight of farmers.
West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool supremo Banerjee had then accused the Congress of colluding with the Marxists, with the Trinamool leadership asking the Congress to quit the state government and seek re-election from their respective constituencies.
However after the central leadership’s diktat, the state Congress leadership feels that it’s up to Banerjee to solve the matter.
“We are always ready to solve each and every issue. Everything depends on Mamata. If she says that the decision to rename has been withdrawn everything stops there,” said Congress leader Arunavo Ghosh.
“We have protested in a democratic way and I think every political party has right to protest. The AICC was well aware of our protests. We are always really to solve the issues but they should also follow principles of coalition politics,” said party MP Deepa Dasmunsi.