Criticising the Congress for sitting on a “high horse” and refusing to awaken to its “depleted strength” in Goa, the Trinamool Congress (TMC) said the need of the hour was for the Opposition parties to come together and try to defeat the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
TMC MP and Goa in-charge Mahua Moitra said on Thursday that leaders of the Congress party were not the “emperors of India”. Had the party performed well in Goa, there would have been no need for the TMC to enter the fray, she added.
Ms. Moitra’s statements were a direct riposte to senior Congressman and former Union Minister P. Chidambaram’s remarks that the electoral battle in Goa was a direct fight between the Congress and the BJP and that the entry of the TMC and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) would only serve to fragment the anti-BJP votes.
“Despite winning the mandate [after the 2017 election], the Congress had failed to form the government. This time, too, the Congress alone is incapable of defeating the BJP. The TMC is asking all anti-BJP forces to come together to oust the BJP in Goa…the anti-BJP forces in Goa today are the Congress, AAP and TMC. None of them can stake a claim that we are the only ones in the fray,” Ms. Moitra said.
Mr. Chidambaram, who is party senior election observer for Goa, had further said in an interview to a news agency that the Congress had been “dismayed” when the TMC “lured” Congress MLAs into its fold.
In response, Ms. Moitra said the Congress had no right to speak on defections as they had recently inducted former BJP Minister Michael Lobo and his wife, BJP leader Delilah Lobo, as well as ex-Minister and sitting BJP MLA Carlos Almeida in their party.
“I would like to remind the Congress that all those people who find it impossible to have a fighting platform in the Congress are the ones who are coming to the TMC…By the Congress’ definition, even [TMC supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister] Mamata Banerjee and Andhra Pradesh CM Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy are ‘defectors’. But these are the people who are Chief Ministers and running their States. It is high time that the Congress woke up to its depleted strength and realise that they are not emperors of India,” she said.
The TMC leader said the party had inducted all those Congressmen who wanted a fighting platform against the BJP which the Congress had been unable to provide.
Ms. Moitra said the TMC was not harbouring “an inflated ego” about joining forces with the anti-BJP allies.
