Kolkata, July 31 (IANS) The strains in the Congress-Trinamool Congress alliance in West Bengal showed up yet again as the Congress described as ‘untrue’ Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s claim that it was in contact with the Marxists, and alleged that its workers were being attacked by Trinamool activists in various parts of the state.
State Congress chief Pradip Bhattacharya also alleged that ‘unscrupulous elements’ had infiltrated the Trinamool.
‘We have no relations with the Marxists either at the national or at the state level. We have ideological and other differences with them. It is totally untrue that we have a secret understanding with the communists,’ Bhattacharya told newspersons at the state party headquarters here.
Banerjee accused the alliance partner Congress Saturday of colluding with the Marxists on various occasions and also went to the extent of accusing the Congress led by Narasimha Rao in the 1990s of being hand in glove with the CPI-M ‘when the latter physically beat me up’. She said she did not believe that the Congress and the CPI-M were not in contact now.
Asked to react to the allegation that the Congress-led central government is not helping the state government financially, Bhattacharya said: ‘This is an issue concerning the constitutional framework. I am hopeful that such problems will be solved very soon.’
He alleged that since the state assembly elections, the Trinamool Congress activists were attacking Congress workers.
‘After the election, there have been 61 incidents of Trinamool Congress activists attacking Congress workers and party offices,’ he said.
‘Actually many unscrupulous elements have infiltrated into Trinamool Congress and they are doing such things,’ he said.
Bhattacharya said he would write to the chief minister on these incidents, and demanded formation of a coordination committee between the two parties to resolve issues like attacks on Congress workers.
Trinamool is the second largest party after the DMK in the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government at the centre. On the other hand, the Congress is the junior partner in the state government headed by the Trinamool.
