KOLKATA, Nov 29: With an eye on expanding its footprint nationally, Trinamool Congress (TMC) on Monday announced that it will change the party’s constitution to induct more members from other states.
It snubbed the Congress saying that TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee is the “strongest and most experienced face” to take on BJP nationally and defeat it in the next Lok Sabha elections.
“Today, in our coordination committee meeting, it was decided that our next coordination committee meeting will be held in Delhi. It was also decided that changes will be made in our party constitution so that we can bring in more people from other states and our national coordination committee can truly have a national footprint,” TMC Rajya Sabha party leader, Derek O’Brien, said.
Newly joined member Pawan Verma, who switched over from the JD (U), said TMC will continue to expand nationally.
“Let us tell this that Mamata Banerjee is the strongest, credible and experienced face nationally to take on the BJP”, Brien said.
His comment came when he was asked about the party’s relationship with the Congress, some of whose leaders have joined the TMC.
Another senior TMC leader said the party is likely to move ahead with forming an opposition alliance without the Congress.
“Bengal has shown the way in the April-May assembly poll. It will do so again in the 2024 general election. We (TMC) want a pan-India opposition front against BJP. If Congress wants to join us, it is welcome. If it wants to sit idle, it is free to do that,” a TMC leader said on condition of anonymity.
“We won’t wait for the Congress. It lacks the determination to fight against BJP,” he said.
The Trinamool Congress had said on Saturday that it is “uninterested” in coordinating with the Congress during the winter session of Parliament but had maintained that it will cooperate with other opposition camps on various issues concerning people’s interest.
The Trinamool Congress has been openly against Congress for its alleged failure to take on BJP.
It had recently termed the grand old party as “incapable and incompetent” and had asserted that TMC cannot be blamed for its leaders jumping the ship.
The relationship between the two parties had hit a new low last month after Banerjee’s party took a dig at Rahul Gandhi’s defeat at Amethi in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls and had wondered whether Congress could erase it through a Twitter trend.
TMC mouthpiece ‘Jago Bangla’ had claimed that it was Banerjee, who is also the West Bengal chief minister, and not Rahul Gandhi, who has emerged as the face of opposition against Prime Minister Narendra Modi. (PTI)
