Congress Leader Calls Mamata Banerjee "A Great Underminer Of Alliance Politics" Ahead Of 23 June Patna Opposition Meet

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee "is not at all sincere in stitching or forging any alliance," according to the West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee president, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury.

"She is a great underminer of alliance politics," he said, adding that there are "examples galore."

Chowdhury made these comments about Banerjee to the Indian Express over the phone, as he spoke to the newspaper about the political violence that has rocked Bengal ahead of the panchayat election.

The Congress leader in the Lok Sabha staged a dharna outside the block office at Burwan in Bengal’s Murshidabad district on Wednesday (21 June).

He demanded action against the ruling Trinamool Congress activists who allegedly attacked Congress workers.

But while Chowdhury is fighting the Trinamool in Bengal, his party leaders will be joined by Mamata Banerjee and other opposition leaders on Friday (23 June) for their first joint meeting in Patna where they will discuss a strategy to battle the ruling BJP in the 2024 Lok Sabha election.

"Mamata Banerjee is constrained to participate in the opposition meeting because she is fast losing her national stature. It is nothing but a ploy to establish herself as a political leader at the national level," he said.

He also highlighted the "hypocrisy" of Banerjee joining the opposition leaders in Patna and not in Delhi.

"She (Banerjee) has always played the role of a Trojan horse to undermine opposition unity so that the opposition could not be consolidated," he said.

Chowdhury's "examples galore" of Banerjee 'undermining alliance politics' include her not protesting the disqualification of Rahul Gandhi as an MP and deploying all her might to contest the Congress party in Goa, Meghalaya, and Tripura.

"Not only that, when the opposition parties unanimously decided to field a joint candidate against Mr Dhankhar (for Vice President’s election), she opposed," he said.

Her recent attempts to gain political heft are due to her loss of national stature, according to Chowdhury.