Miffed at Mamata Banerjee's refusal to support a Congress nominee in the Presidential election, the West Bengal Congress leadership on Thursday threatened to pull out of her government in the State.
“We believe it is useless to stay in the Ministry in West Bengal. There are no gains for the party to be part of the Trinamool Congress-led government. We will discuss the issue with our central leadership and if they agree, we will be ready to pull out of the government,” PCC president Pradip Bhattacharya told The Hindu .
State Congress leaders described Ms. Banerjee's announcement of three names for President as “an attempt to sabotage” the United Progressive Alliance's search for a consensus candidate.
Cautioning the Trinamool that it “may not in future find in the Congress an ally but a strong and vocal opposition in West Bengal,” PCC general secretary Omprakash Mishra said Ms. Banerjee's unilateral announcement damaged the Trinamool's credibility and trustworthiness as an alliance partner both at the Centre and in the State.
“For over a year now, the State Congress has been suffering the high-handedness of the Trinamool. The central leadership got a taste of it on the issue of Presidential elections,” he said, pointing out that such a situation could not continue forever.
Congress leaders have also expressed their resentment against Ms. Banerjee not supporting the candidature of Pranab Mukherjee and said her decision was against the “Bengali sentiment.”
Describing Ms. Banerjee's attitude as a “crab mentality of pulling another down” Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, Congress MP, said “it is only because of her personal vendetta against Mr. Mukherjee that she is opposed to his candidature.”
