Congress president Rahul Gandhi’s meeting in Siliguri tomorrow had to be cancelled after the district police denied permission to the landing of his chopper.
A senior Congress leader confirmed that the Congress had asked for permission, but it was denied by the police.
Whether this indicates a direct face-off between the West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee and the Congress president, is yet to unfold. However, the fact that there were cold vibes between the two and things were turning bitter has been evident in the past few public meetings in Bengal.
First it was the Congress president who attacked Banerjee in the same breath as the BJP. At a rally in Malda on March 23, drawing a parallel between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee, the Congress president had said, “On the one hand, Narendra Modi ji lies and on the other hand your CM keeps making promises, but does not fulfil them.” It was one of the first times since the attempt to create an alliance of the Opposition parties, that Rahul Gandhi had attacked Mamata Banerjee.
The Bengal CM had initially refused to react to the attacks, saying “he is a young man, I didn’t mind what he said.”
Rahul Gandhi’s attacks came as a surprise since the Opposition parties – including the Congress and the Trinamool Congress – have been trying to forge an alliance to oust the BJP from the Centre.
However, subsequently, Banerjee began to attack the Congress in her election meetings. In some of the recent public meetings during her north Bengal tour, the Bengal CM has said that if the Congress had fought a bit hard, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) would have been less assertive. She has also been reiterating in her recent meetings that the regional parties will form the next government at the Centre, including her party, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the Samajwadi Party (SP). Not only has she not mentioned the Congress, she has even asserted that a government at the Centre cannot be formed without the help of the Trinamool Congress.
On his part, Rahul Gandhi has been sarcastic about Banerjee’s past alliance with the BJP. “We have never made alliances with the BJP, but she has,” the Congress president said in his last meeting in West Bengal.
Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath was denied permission by Bengal administration from landing on the Bengal soil for election campaign in the recent past.
And now, political party leaders are reading between the lines to say that the Congress president’s “uncalled for attacks” on Banerjee may have something to do with this sudden turn of events.
