- Friday, April 26, 2024
By: Shubham Ghosh
That the state of opposition unity in India a year before the next general elections was far from ideal became evident recently when Mamata Banerjee, the chief minister of the eastern Indian state of West Bengal and supremo of the Trinamool Congress (TMC), mocked Indian National Congress leader Rahul Gandhi as prime minister Narendra Modi’s “biggest TRP”, sources to India Today.
Banerjee, who has tried to build an anti-Modi alliance across nation before past elections but failed, said the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) wants to keep Gandhi as a leader, adding that if the latter was the face of the opposition, nobody would be able to criticise Modi, the sources added.
The Bengal chief minister was speaking at an internal meeting of her TMC in the state’s Murshidabad district.
Taking a dig at Gandhi’s whose remarks made in the UK recently saw a massive ruckus in the Indian parliament with the ruling party accusing him of belittling India’s image abroad, Banerjee reportedly told TMC workers, “Otherwise, has anyone ever seen that someone said something abroad and there is a lot of ruckus here over that? We want Parliament to remain open and talks should be held on the Adani issue and LIC issue. But why are talks not happening on the Adani issue? Why are talks not happening on LIC? Why is there no discussion about the price of gas? Amidst all this, the Uniform Civil Code copy has been introduced. We do not accept the Uniform Civil Code and we will not allow it to be implemented.”
The TMC and the Congress, both of which are anti-Modi, have found themselves at loggerheads on many occasions, jeopardising the idea of opposition unity.
