Kolkata: West Bengal Congress president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury on Saturday voiced his anger after senior leader and advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi represented the state government in the Supreme Court for a hearing of BJP's petition on the recent panchayat poll violence.
Speaking to News18, Chowdhury said, “Trinamool Congress (TMC) workers are targeting Congress workers and preventing them from filing nominations across the state. On the other side, my party MP Abhishek Manu Singhvi ji is helping the TMC by arguing on behalf of the Bengal government at the apex court. He is a lawyer by profession and can do that but this is something which is very confusing to us.”
“We all know that Abhishek Manu Singhvi was nominated to the Rajya Sabha from Bengal with the support of TMC but there is a massive anger within the ranks of West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee. My workers are asking me why is Singhvi doing this and I feel embarrassed, I don’t have an answer.”
When asked whether he spoke to anyone in the central leadership of the Congress party, Chowdhury said, “I have conveyed my message to the highest leadership.”
There is a resentment among Bengal Congress workers after Singhvi argued on behalf of the state government in the SC and in Kolkata. Chowdhury himself pleaded his case for the deployment of central forces during panchayat polls before the Calcutta High Court recently.
“I pleaded for central forces before the Calcutta HC because lawyers here are on strike. I am happy with the HC ruling which instructed all SPs, DMs and SDOs to ensure peace during the polls,” Chowdhury said.
TMC supporters allegedly attacked a group of Congress leaders in front of Chowdhury when he was on his way to Kandi SDO office to assist his workers to file nominations.
This is not for the first time when Chowdhury expressed his strong opposition towards the ruling party in Bengal.
On July 22, 2017, Chowdhury had, for the first time, ruled out the possibility of joining hands with the ruling Trinamool Congress in 2019 Lok Sabha Elections.
Then, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had urged the opposition to stand shoulder-to-shoulder to oust the BJP. Banerjee had said that Bengal stood with Sonia Gandhi and other opposition leaders - Nitish Kumar, Omar Abdullah, Navin Patanaik - to take on Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Chowdhury had said, “She is now hounded by the BJP in Bengal. Mamata is now scared of BJP, and therefore, she wanted us to rescue her. When Congress was in power, she called for a Congress-mukt Bharat and now she is calling for a BJP-mukt Bharat. She only knows what her intention is.”
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