Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge’s poster was found defaced outside the party office in Kolkata with “TMC Dalal” written across his photo on Monday. The incident comes a day after Kharge rebuked West Bengal unit chief Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, asserting that he was “no one to decide” on Mamata Banerjee’s inclusion in the Opposition INDIA bloc.
Sharing details of the incident on social media platform X, BJP leader Amit Malviya wrote, “The internecine war between the Congress spills out. After Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge openly castigated Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury for taking on Mamata Banerjee, his posters outside Congress headquarters in West Bengal have been defaced with ‘TMC Dalal’ written across.”
He added, “The central leadership of the Congress is trying to thrust Mamata Banerjee on the WB unit but they refuse to put up with the tyrant. I.N.D.I Alliance is full of contradictions. It doesn’t exist.”
ADHIR RANJAN CHOWDHURY ASKED TO SUBMIT FACTUAL REPORT
In a statement, AICC General Secretary (Organisation) KC Venugopal said, “We are taking a very serious note of such grave anti-party activities. The Indian National Congress shall not tolerate such public display of defiance and indiscipline.”
“The General Secretary in charge of West Bengal is directed to immediately submit a factual report of these acts of gross indiscipline,” he added.
WHO SAID WHAT
Though Kharge had snubbed Chowdhury, five-time Lok Sabha MP from Bahrampur, for his remarks that Banerjee cannot be trusted and that she might go with the BJP, he heaped praise on West Bengal Congress chief Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, lauding him as a “combative soldier” of the party.
“Vo hamarey ladaku sipahi hain (combative solider),” he said about Chowdhury, who has only intensified his offensive against the West Bengal chief minister by alleging that she has used violence to crush the Congress in the state and has been helping the BJP. Asked if the Congress was making the same mistake with Chowdhury as it had made with Banerjee in 1998 when she had quit the party to form her own protesting its coyness in the face of Left “atrocities” on party cadres in Bengal, Kharge told PTI, “I do not want to speak about an individual.
On Saturday, Kharge had dismissed Chowdhury’s criticism of Banerjee while addressing a joint press conference with Shiv Sena (UBT) president Uddhav Thackeray and NCP (SP) chief Sharad Pawar in Mumbai. “Mamata Banerjee is with the alliance. She has recently said that she will join the government. Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury will not take the decision. The decision will be taken by me and the high command and those who don’t agree will go out,” Kharge had said in remarks that riled Chowdhury’s supporters in Bengal.
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Chowdhury, while reacting to Kharge’s comments, had said, “I cannot speak in favour of someone who wants to finish me and our party in Bengal politically. This is a battle for every Congress worker. I have spoken on their behalf. I don’t want the state Congress to be used for her (Banerjee’s) personal agenda and then finish the organisation”.
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first published: May 20, 2024, 13:59 IST
