After TMC chief Mamata Banerjee denied the existence of UPA during her Maharashtra visit, TMC has launched a scathing attack on Congress in an editorial in its mouthpiece ‘Jago Bangla’. The Trinamool published an editorial article titled ‘Congress in Deep Freezer’ where it backed TMC Chief Mamata Banerjee to be the face of opposition. ‘Jago Bangla’ had previously slammed Congress for being “incapable and incompetent” party and stated that Mamata Banerjee has emerged as the face of opposition.
Having already inducted a number of Congress members into its fold, TMC has claimed that the Congress party is a spent force crippled by infighting. In the article published in ‘Jago Bangla’, it said, “The TMC has been saying this for a long time that the Congress is a spent force. They don’t have the zeal to fight the BJP. The party is so bogged down by infighting that it hardly has time or energy to build an opposition. The UPA does not exist.” It further added, “The country currently needs an alternative front and opposition parties have given that responsibility to Mamata Banerjee. They are looking up to her to fill the vacuum. She is presently the most popular opposition face in the country,” The ‘Congress in Deep Freezer’ article has further claimed that the opposition parties are looking up to Mamata Banerjee to fill the void.
The editorial also referred to comments by Prashant Kishor, where he had attacked Rahul Gandhi for repeated failures in elections. Yesterday he had tweeted that the Congress leadership is not the divine right of an individual, especially when the party has lost more than 90% elections in last 10 years. “Let opposition leadership be decided Democratically,” he had demanded, rejecting the notion that someone from the Nehru-Gandhi will be the automatic leader of the opposition.
The IDEA and SPACE that #Congress represents is vital for a strong opposition. But Congress’ leadership is not the DIVINE RIGHT of an individual especially, when the party has lost more than 90% elections in last 10 years.
— Prashant Kishor (@PrashantKishor) December 2, 2021
Let opposition leadership be decided Democratically.
Just a week ago, ‘Jago Bangla’ had said that Mamata Banerjee is the face of the opposition parties, not Sonia Gandhi. The party mouthpiece had called the Congress ‘incompetent and ‘incapable’ of keeping its flock together. TMC has been attacking the Congress and termed it a party indulged in armchair politics having no interest to hit the street against the BJP. It further said that the Congress party has limited itself to Twitter space and was not bothered about building strong opposition alliances.
Earlier, TMC MP Derek O Brien had reiterated Mamata Banerjee’s claims that there exists ‘No UPA’ by giving a glimpse about the history of UPA. He had said, “It is totally factual, we are not here to defend that. She (Banerjee) made a statement … If you look at the history of the UPA, 13 May, 2004 were the election results. 16th or 17th of May the United Progressive Alliance was formed for governance. On 22nd May, Dr Manmohan Singh was sworn in as Prime Minister. There was a clear purpose to set up the UPA post elections and that was for better governance. This continued till 2014”. O’ Brien further added that there has been no UPA for the past 10 years and highlighted that the political dynamics have changed over the years saying, “The Congress had nearly 150 MPs back then, now they have 50. The Left Front had 62 seats back then and now, they have six. The RJD had 25 seats, now they have zero — the dynamics have changed. The AITC (All India Trinamool Congress) has only one focus, which is to uproot the BJP from the states and the Centre.”
