A day after West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee laid bare the fissures between I.N.D.I.A. bloc constituents by lambasting the CPIM for “controlling the bloc meetings” during her speech at an all-faith meeting held to coincide with the pran pratishtha of Lord Ram at Ayodhya, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) struck back on Tuesday.
CPIM politburo member Mohammad Salim made it clear that the party would not participate in the West Bengal leg of the Congress’ Nyay Yatra being led by Rahul Gandhi if the Trinamool Congress also participated in it.
“We shall give full support to Rahul Gandhi’s Nyay Yatra in Bengal. But, we have to make it abundantly clear we will not participate in the Yatra with any political force who helped the BJP to grow their organisation in Bengal,” he said, in a reference to the Trinamool Congress.
Senior CPIM leaders said that the party has sought “assurance” from the Congress that the Trinamool Congress would not be part of the Yatra when the former joins it.
Rahul’s Yatra 2.0, which kicked off from Manipur on January 14, is scheduled to enter Bengal on January 25, where it is slated to traverse a stretch of 523 km across seven districts over several days.
According to Congress sources, a senior All India Congress Committee (AICC) leader had called up Mohammad Salim from Delhi on Sunday to invite him to join the Yatra when it enters the State.
Mohammed Salim said: “We give full support to Rahul Gandhi’s Yatra. But, we made it clear we will not participate in the Yatra with any political force which helped the BJP to grow their organisation in West Bengal. It is the Trinamool Congress which paved the way for the BJP in Bengal to expand its organisation.”
Apart from the Congress, the Trinamool Congress and the CPI(M) are among the major constituents of the Opposition I.N.D.I.A. bloc formed to take on the BJP in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.
Congress sources said the party will also invite the Trinamool Congress to participate in the Yatra, but the latter might refrain from joining it over their differences in sharing of the Bengal seats for the Lok Sabha polls.
A senior State Congress leader said: “The Trinamool Congress wants seat-sharing confirmation from our leadership. This is impossible right now because our high command will not allow this type of bargaining. We expect that without finalising the seat-adjustment, Trinamool Congress will not participate in the Yatra.”
The Congress leader also said, “We are eager to make seat adjustments with CPI(M)-led Left, which we had in the 2016 and 2021 Assembly elections. A majority of our leaders are not eager to make any adjustment with the Trinamool Congress. Our leaders have already made it clear to the party high command as well.”
On Monday, which marked the inauguration of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Trinamool Congress supremo and Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee led an all-faith “Sanhati (harmony) rally” in Kolkata, from where she not only slammed the BJP for “politicising religion” but also hit out at her I.N.D.I.A. bloc partners.
Mamata accused the CPI(M) of “controlling” the I.N.D.I.A. bloc’s meetings, even as she targeted the Congress for not listening to her over seat-sharing for the polls.
“I suggested the name I.N.D.I.A. But I am sad to say that when I attend the I.N.D.I.A. meetings, I see CPI(M) controlling it. I cannot agree with those with whom I fought for 34 years,” Mamata said.
“I have been told what they (I.N.D.I.A. allies) think they will do. I tell them not to help the BJP. If you do so, the people of India will not pardon you. If I can have the guts to take on the BJP, why can’t you?”
The I.N.D.I.A. allies have run into a seat-sharing hurdle in Bengal, with the Trinamool Congress having declined to engage in talks with the Congress’s national alliance committee over the issue while offering the party just two of its sitting seats – Berhampore and Malda Dakshin.
State Congress president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, who is also the party MP from Berhampore, has rejected the Trinamool Congress’s offer, saying the grand old party had won those seats on its own in 2019 fighting against the Trinamool Congress and the BJP, and that the Congress does not need any “grace or generosity” from Mamata Banerjee to win them again.
Rahul Gandhi’s Nyay Yatra will enter Bengal through Falakata in Alipurduar district on January 25, where it will stay on January 26 and 27. Subsequently, it will head to Chopra in North Dinajpur on its way to Malda over the next few days. Adhir Chowdhury is said to be keen that Rahul Gandhi’s Nyay Yatra also passes through Murshidabad district, which is his home turf.