Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury has been appointed as the new head of the West Bengal Congress (archive)
Calcutta:
The newly appointed head of the state Congress, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, said on Sunday that his party, along with the left, will prove to be a “game changer” in the 2021 Bengal Assembly elections, and warned ruling TMC and the BJP that the contest will not. be a piece of cake for them.
Chowdhury, a staunch critic of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, said his approach would be to devour the voting share of both the TMC and the BJP, and restore the secular spirit in the state, which has long been “overshadowed by politics. sectarian “. practiced by both parties.
However, he declined to comment when asked if Congress would expand support for the TMC if the elections result in a hung Assembly, saying that “hypothetical questions can only be answered when the need arises.”
The state had last witnessed a suspended Assembly during the 1967 elections, when the Bangladesh Congress and the CPI (M) joined together to form the government.
Holding the TMC government’s “appeasement policy” responsible for the rise of the BJP in Bengal, Chowdhury, the congressional leader in Lok Sabha, said he will strive to strengthen the party by bringing back the veterans, who have joined to the opposition camps. .
“Bengal has always been revered across the country for its secularism. However, over the past few years, both the TMC and the BJP have pursued the policy of communal polarization and overshadowed the secular ideals that the state has always held dear.
“I can assure you that the union between the Left Front and Congress would change the rules of the game in Bengal politics. Unlike the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, I will not allow the 2021 assembly elections to be a game of kids for the TMC and the BJP, Mr. Chowdhury told PTI.
However, arguing that the state would face a three-way fight in 2021, the top congressional leader rejected the often-repeated theory that a three-way fight tends to favor the ruling party.
“The theory that a three-way fight tends to help the ruling party is not correct. In politics, two plus two is not always four. We will cut the share of the votes against the incumbent, as well as the TMC vote bank.
“Many congressional loyalists have turned their allegiance to other parties in recent years. We would court them back. The Left-Congress alliance would fight on the platform of development, a government free of corruption,” he said.
Chowdhury had previously served as head of the West Bengal Pradesh Congress (WBPCC) from 2014 to 2018. Under his leadership, the party had forged ties with the Left Front and fought in the 2016 state elections.
However, during the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the proposed Congress-CPI (M) alliance fell apart after both sides were unable to reach an agreement on seat sharing.
Stating that the TMC and the BJP are two sides of a coin, he said the state government deliberately pursued appeasement policies to make way for the cross-polarization of the saffron field.
“The TMC has been an ally of the BJP in the past. It was the TMC, which brought the BJP to Bengal in the late 1990s. It did nothing for the development of Muslims, but followed a policy of appeasement and destroyed the secular fabric of the state, “said Chowdhury, a vocal detractor of the party led by Mamata Banerjee.
The ruling party projected itself as the “messiah of the Muslims” and the BJP as the “protector of the Hindus,” and they weakened secular and democratic forces such as Congress and the left, he claimed.
The veteran leader said that the “dismal performance” of the BJP government in the Center on various fronts, such as the economy, employment and COVID-19 management, would haunt the saffron party in Bengal during the next assembly elections.
“The BJP has nothing to show for it, as they have failed miserably when it comes to development. And during the assembly elections, they would have no surgical attack to speak of … Along with a growing anti-incumbent wave against the TMC in the State, the winds are also blowing against the BJP for its poor performance, at the national level, ”he said.
Admitting that there were some gaps in the LeftCongress alliance during the 2016 election as it was hastily forged, he said efforts are being made to fix them.
Both the left and Congress, following their poor performance in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, have been working together, be it fighting in the polls or organizing any mass movement.
“We are about to give a definitive shape to the alliance. The cadres of both parties are also in favor of the alliance,” he said.
The Left-Congress alliance had won 76 seats in the 294-member assembly during the 2016 elections. The TMC won 211 seats, the BJP just three.
However, a lot of water has passed under the Howrah Bridge in the last four years as the BJP made great strides and emerged as the main rival of the ruling TMC in Bengal, by putting pressure on the traditional opposition parties, the CPI (M) and Congress, distant third and fourth places.
The saffron field reached its highest point in Bengal politics last year when it surprised experts by winning 18 of the 42 Lok Sabha seats in the state, four fewer than the ruling TMC, and with a staggering proportion of votes. 41 percent of the vote.
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