KOLKATA: Trinamool
Congress
has accused Bengal Congress chief
Adhir Chowdhury
of being a “BJP agent”, latching onto a campaign video where he is allegedly heard saying “voting for BJP is better than voting for Trinamool”, reports Tamaghna Banerjee.
Congress has labelled the clip “doctored” and blamed
TMC
for spreading “misinformation”.
West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee seized on the video to allege that “BJP and (Bengal) Congress were working in tandem to engineer TMC’s defeat”.
TMC Rajya Sabha MP Saket Gokhale shared the 8-second clip on X. “Finally — from the B-team horse’s mouth! Chowdhury publicly asks people in his rally to vote for BJP and not TMC. While Mamata fights against the full might of Modi and central agencies machinery, Bengal Congress is openly asking votes for BJP. Congress and CPM have chosen to become Modi’s loyal soldiers…beyond shameless,” Gokhale wrote.
In its rebuttal, the state Congress shared a video of Chowdhury’s speech, made while campaigning for Jangipur party candidate Mortuza Hossain.
Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh claimed Chowdhury’s comment had been taken out of context and stressed that Congress’ only goal was to significantly reduce BJP’s seats from the 18 (out of 42) seats it won in Bengal in 2019. “This is not an assembly
. These are Lok Sabha elections and Congress is in INDIA bloc with allies. Mamata has said she is also part of INDIA bloc, although seat-sharing with us could not happen,” added Ramesh.
