West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee addresses a press conference at Nabanna in Howrah on May 30, 2023. Photo Credit: PTI
a day later West Bengal’s lone Congress MLA joins Trinamool Congress (TMC)Chief Minister and TMC president Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday said all opposition parties, including the Congress, were together at the national level and the Congress MLA’s defection was a local issue.
“We are all together at the national level. At the state level, all parties should understand that state parties have their own responsibility,” Ms Banerjee said when asked about Congress MLA Byron Biswas defecting to her party. on Monday. Mr Biswas, who was elected to the state assembly on March 2, 2023, joined the TMC.
Referring to Mr Biswas’s defection, senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said such horse-trading was not done to strengthen opposition unity and only served the BJP’s objectives.
“Three months after being elected as a Congress MLA in a historic victory, Byron Biswas has been wooed by the TMC in West Bengal. This is complete betrayal of the mandate of the people of Sagardighi assembly constituency. Such horse-trading which has happened earlier in Goa, Meghalaya, Tripura and other states is not designed to strengthen opposition unity and only serves BJP’s objectives,” Mr Ramesh tweeted.
The TMC president tried to downplay the remark, thanked Mr Ramesh and said the party had fielded candidates in assembly elections only in some states, not all states where the Congress was contesting. “We have contested only from Meghalaya and Goa. But when Congress contested elections in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Gujarat and Chhattisgarh, we were never bothered. Instead of harassing them, we supported them,” he told reporters at the state secretariat
Ms Banerjee, however, did not hold back from alleging that all parties of the opposition in West Bengal were united against her.
“He said, ‘to hit (BJP) Tree (Left) shyam (Congress), The alliance will remain, and they will continue to create hurdles in the smooth functioning of our government. I would tell them to stay united because I don’t think much of them.
The chief minister expressed unhappiness over the downgrading of his party’s national party status by the Election Commission and said only the BJP and the Congress wanted to remain national parties. “We had the status of a national party till 2026 but what the Election Commission did was not fair,” he said. The TMC president said she wanted some of her party’s MLAs to be in other states.
Ms Banerjee confirmed that she would attend the meeting of opposition parties to be held in Patna on June 12. [Bihar CM Nitish Kumar] Will hold a meeting of opposition parties in Patna. They asked me a day before and I confirmed that I will participate,” the chief minister said. He said that some political parties wanted the meeting to be held in Delhi, but since Jayaprakash Narayan had called from Bihar, it was decided to hold the meeting in Patna. Earlier this month, Mr Kumar and Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav met Ms Banerjee in Kolkata, where they urged her to convene a meeting of opposition parties in Patna.
patted the protesting wrestlers
The Chief Minister extended his support to the wrestlers protesting in Delhi against Wrestling Federation of India President and BJP MP Brij Bhushan Saran Singh, accused of sexual harassment. The Chief Minister said that he spoke to the wrestlers on the telephone and said that a rally would be held in Kolkata on Wednesday in support of the protesting wrestlers. The Chief Minister said that State Sports Minister Arup Biswas and many sportspersons would participate in the rally.
Permission to go to Manipur
Ms Banerjee also said she has written to the Center seeking permission to visit Manipur, where clashes between communities have claimed several lives. The chief minister said, “I want to be with the people of Manipur… I have no intention of violating any protocol, but I want to be with the peace-loving people of the state.”
In the past too, he had expressed his desire to visit trouble-torn Manipur. He also questioned the “delay” in Home Minister Amit Shah’s visit to the state, saying violence was still continuing there.