A frontpage article in the Trinamool Congress’ mouthpiece, Jaago Bangla, headlined “Rahul could not, Mamata is the real Opposition face”, has triggered a political storm of speculation about the party chief being projected as the Opposition’s prime ministerial face for the 2024 elections.
“We cannot think of an Opposition without the Congress. But Rahul Gandhi has not been able to stand up to Narendra Modi as the face of the Opposition. The main face of the Opposition now is Mamata Banerjee. We will campaign all over the country with the popular leader, Mamata Banerjee, as the face of the Opposition,” the article published on Friday said.
The State Congress leadership reacted sharply to the piece, with West Bengal Congress president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury saying that such developments will create a rift in the Opposition unity.
“When there are talks that Opposition will fight together, why is this race to project someone as the Prime Minister. It is for the people of India to decide whether Rahul Gandhi is the alternative of Narendra Modi or not. No political party can make claims about that,” Mr. Chowdhury said. The Congress MP said that even before the race for the 2024 has started is not proper to project anyone as Prime Minister.
The development assumes significance as the Congress has not fielded a candidate against Ms Banerjee at Bhabanipur.
“The country needs an opposition. I know Rahul Gandhi for a long time. But I am forced to admit that he has not been able to position himself as the face of the Opposition against Narendra Modi. The whole country wants Mamata Banerjee to be that face,” the article quoted TMC’s Lok Sabha MP Sudip Bandopadhyay as saying at an event at Calcutta University. Other Trinamool Congress leaders including Minister Tapas Ray and Kunal Ghosh were present at the event.
Responding to the article, State BJP president Dilip Ghosh said, “How many people read Jaago Bangla . The TMC is printing to project Mamata Banerjee as the Prime Minister. We all know what happened in Nandigram.”
The TMC leadership, however, maintained that ‘Mamata is the real face of the Opposition’. TMC leader and Minister Firhad Hakim said that in the 2021 West Bengal polls, Ms Banerjee fought like a tigress and defeated the entire BJP leadership.
