Hours after Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said the “door is open” for the Congress (to walk out of the alliance in West Bengal), Pradesh Congress Committee chief Pradip Bhattacharya said the party would not the leave the ministry to oblige the Trinamool Congress.
“We have jointly contested elections in West Bengal. In the elections, the Congress has got the votes of the Trinamool and the Trinamool has got our votes … One fine morning, someone tells us to leave the ministry … we are not required to oblige them,” Mr. Bhattacharya told The Hindu over telephone from Bardhaman district.
Referring to the present government as a “joint venture” between the parties, he said the Congress had joined it on the wishes of people. “The Congress is not afraid of anybody. The day the common man wishes us to step down from the ministry we will do so.”
Another senior leader, Omprakash Mishra, said: “The Congress has not entered into any alliance with the CPI(M). It is just a figment of her [Ms. Banerjee's] imagination.”
This was a reference to Ms. Banerjee's remark, blaming the Congress for the incident at a college in Raiganj in Uttar Dinajpur district, where the principal was allegedly assaulted by Trinamool supporters, and her allegation that the CPI(M) and the Congress had teamed up to collude against the State government.
Mr. Mishra said the Congress, along with the Trinamool, opposed the CPI(M) tooth and nail and the party was shocked at the repeated allegations being levelled by the Trinamool chief.
The ties between the two alliance partners in the State dipped to a new low after the Congress expressed its resentment over the proposed renaming of Indira Bhavan. Senior Congress leaders including Cabinet Ministers launched an attack on the State government on various other issues, including the plight of farmers in the State.
