The assembly poll results, which handed a 3-1 win to the BJP and Congress respectively, have cast a shadow on the future of the Grand Old Party in the opposition bloc.
Partners of INDIA have begun training guns on the Congress, with the Trinamool Congress — a prominent player — slamming the party for its “failure”.
As the trends became clear on Sunday, TMC general secretary Kunal Ghosh said: “What happened in the three states is not BJP’s success, it is Congress’s failure. BJP has copied schemes from West Bengal. These results would have no impact on the Lok Sabha elections because what happened in these states is Congress’s fault. But when a united INDIA comes in 2024, the BJP will not stand in front of it… What happened in other states would not be repeated in Bengal…”
Ghosh also said it is time for the Grand Old Party to introspect and come out of its “zamindari attitude”.
On Monday, an editorial in TMC mouthpiece Jago Bangla attacked Congress over its attitude and said the party must rectify its mistakes. “…Congress has to see why they failed, they need to introspect. Congress has to rectify its mistakes. They have a typical ‘Zamindari’ attitude that needs to change. Now, focus should be on the fight for 2024. Mamata Banerjee has defeated BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah could not do anything. The advice of people who are successful in defeating BJP should be taken. INDIA alliance is the future.”
While the TMC may still be hopeful of a good show in the 2024 polls, the party’s attack on Congress clearly shows that the latter will not be allowed to call the shots in the opposition camp.
A tumultuous relationship
The relationship between Congress and TMC has always been blow hot, blow cold. Things soured after the 2021 Bengal result and especially after Sushmita Dev, Mukul Sangma, and Luizinho Faleiro joined TMC. TMC insiders say the party always knew that Congress does not have the capacity to fight BJP and that’s why people were joining the former.
Devangshu Bhattacharya, Bengal IT cell head, also wrote on Facebook that Congress should leave its ego and work for the people the entire year, not just during elections.
When the INDIA bloc was formed, TMC was seen standing in Congress’s support. TMC general secretary Abhishek Banerjee went to Delhi and met Rahul Gandhi. However, sources say now that the Grand Old Party’s performance is under the scanner, its role as big brother in the alliance will also be reworked.
The Congress had called an alliance meet on December 6 but Mamata Banerjee is unlikely to join as she has a prescheduled meeting in North Bengal.
It is expected that the Congress debacle will be discussed in the meeting along with the party’s future role in the alliance.
Sources told News18 that Congress was advised to declare seat division in other states apart from Bengal and Punjab before the elections but the party ignored the advice.
Meanwhile, irate over the attacks, the Congress in Bengal said it did not want any advice from TMC on political course correction.
Taking a dig at the crisis in the bloc, BJP leader Dilip Ghosh said: “Do you think there is any alliance? They only had tea in various places, nothing else. People know ‘Modi hai toh mumkin hain’. That’s why people has given him votes. The Opposition is now just blaming each other.”
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