Adhir gets ‘invites’ from ex-aide, Union min even as neta keeps up anti-Trinamool stance
Times of India | 2 August 2024
Kolkata/New Delhi: Even as the Congress high command remained indecisive on the future of Bengal Congress chief Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, the latter on Wednesday hardened his anti-Trinamool stance and alleged that the party was attacking Congress supporters. “How can I stay silent against Trinamool,” Chowdhury asked in a social media post.
“Who else other than us will speak on behalf of our workers who are being beaten up every day by activists of TMC? The party in office in the state is trying to break Congress on a daily basis.Despite officially being a part of the INDIA bloc, they have not stopped oppressing us,” Chowdhury wrote on Facebook.
Meanwhile, across the political landscape, different comments were made on Chowdhury on Wednesday. Pradesh Congress leaders indicated that the decision on Chowdhury was pending as party seniors — including Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra — were in Wayanad. In Kolkata, meanwhile, former Chowdhury aide-turned-TMC functionary Apurba Sarkar (David) told reporters, “Adhir da is welcome to Trinamool if he so wants.” Interestingly, Abu Hasem Khan Choudhury, father of Congress’s lone Bengal MP Isha Khan Choudhury, told reporters: “Adhir is still the state Congress president. Isha is not mature enough to become the state president.”
In Delhi, Union minister Ramdas Athawale invited Chowdhury to join NDA. “It is because he (Chowdhury) lost in Bengal that he is being ignored and insulted. Due to this attitude of Congress, many people left the party and joined BJP. I request Adhirji... if he is being insulted in Congress, then he should leave Congress. I invite him to join NDA or my party RPI,” he said.
Trinamool’s former Rajya Sabha MP Kunal Ghosh said: “How can we talk about another party? It seems Chowdhury is awaiting expulsion so he can join BJP. We are with INDIA bloc at the national level. But we are opposed to Congress and Left in Bengal because they are working in cahoots with BJP in the state. What Congress will do in Bengal is their personal decision. We cannot comment on it.”
CPM, too, spoke on the issue. “Who becomes the next state Congress president is their internal matter. Chowdhury played a key role in fighting for secular and democratic rights in Bengal alongside the Left. He was prominent in opposing both TMC and BJP in the state,” said CPM state secretary Mohammed Salim.