West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has agreed to the Congress's request to campaign for Priyanka Gandhi in Wayanad, setting aside her differences with the grand old party, sources said.
In fact, it was Mamata Banerjee who had pitched the idea for Priyanka to contest from Varanasi, something that even Rahul Gandhi has echoed in recent days.
The development comes after veteran Congress leader P Chidambaram held a meeting with Mamata Banerjee at the state secretariat in Kolkata.
I don't have any personal difference with Mamata Banerjee, it is purely political," Chowdhury said, to the surprise of many.
With the Congress high command once again on an overdrive to pacify Mamata Banerjee, Chowdhury clearly has very little option but to tone down his rhetoric, feel many.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has agreed to the Congress's request to campaign for Priyanka Gandhi in Wayanad, setting aside her differences with the grand old party, sources said.
In fact, it was Mamata Banerjee who had pitched the idea for Priyanka to contest from Varanasi, something that even Rahul Gandhi has echoed in recent days.
The development comes after veteran Congress leader P Chidambaram held a meeting with Mamata Banerjee at the state secretariat in Kolkata. Sources said Chidambaram came as an emissary of the Gandhis.
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The TMC supremo has been upset with the Congress and specifically blamed state party chief Adhir Chowdhury for the breakdown in Congress-TMC alliance talks.
After TMC's big win in Bengal, where it secured 29 of the 42 Lok Sabha seats, the party's second-in-command Abhishek Banerjee has been on an overdrive to meet INDIA constituent members to bring them together on various issues, minus the Congress.
First, Banerjee met Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav and AAP's Raghav Chadha in New Delhi and subsequently flew to Mumbai to meet Uddhav Thackeray.
Earlier this week, a TMC delegation comprising MPs Kalyan Banerjee, Sagarika Ghose and Saket Gokale met NCP supremo Sharad Pawar in Mumbai and took part in a joint demonstration demanding a SEBI probe into alleged stock market manipulation on exit poll day. Once again, Congress was not involved in the agitation.
Apprehensive about such moves, and in a bid to pacify the TMC, which is the third-largest opposition party with 29 MPs, the Congress top brass sent Chidambaram to hold direct talks with Mamata Banerjee and resolve the differences.
On Friday, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, a known Mamata Banerjee baiter, appeared to soften his stance, saying his differences with the West Bengal Chief Minister were "purely political and nothing personal".
Chowdhury made the remark while addressing party workers during the Pradesh Congress's two-day internal meeting in Kolkata on Friday.
"In 2011, ahead of the Bengal Assembly elections, I told Sonia Gandhi that Congress must get into an alliance with the TMC to fight the Left. I had told her that Mamata Banerjee is the most credible face in Bengal and that we must align with her, and we would do well if Congress-TMC ties up. I don't have any personal difference with Mamata Banerjee, it is purely political," Chowdhury said, to the surprise of many.
Known for his staunch anti-Mamata rhetoric, the Adhir Chowdhury-led Bengal Congress was routed in the Lok Sabha polls. The alliance with the CPIM did not even help the five-time MP secure his Baharampur seat, which he lost to a political greenhorn like Yusuf Pathan.
With the Congress high command once again on an overdrive to pacify Mamata Banerjee, Chowdhury clearly has very little option but to tone down his rhetoric, feel many.
Published By: Abhishek De Published On: Jun 21, 2024
