Trinamool Congress to look beyond Bengal, fight state polls

After sweeping the recent assembly elections and eliminating the possibility of a saffron surge in West Bengal, the Trinamool Congress now plans to look beyond the state.

Speaking to reporters at a press conference on Monday (June 8), TMC general secretary Abhishek Banerjee said that the party plans to branch out across the country with a primary target to save the country and protect the constitution.

“Our target is not to defeat the BJP. Our target is to save the country and protect the Constitution,” he said.

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While not revealing the exact modus operandi of the party to fan out across the country, Abhishek said the plan is not limited to merely winning a percentage of votes, but looks at winning state elections.

“We will go to other states only when we can win that state,” Indian Express quoted him as saying.

“I already held talks with our veteran leaders Subrata Bakshi, Partha Chatterjee and Subrata Mukherjee. Today, I will talk with Sudip Banerjee and tomorrow I will meet Sougata Roy. We will finalise our planning and we will make it public within one month,” he added.

Abhishek, who is the nephew of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, has been called a product of nepotism by the BJP and dissidents inside the TMC and has been at the receiving end of criticism ever since he was a given a decision-making role in the party ahead of the elections.

In a rebuttal to BJP’s swipes at him, he said, “You ran a campaign on ‘dynasty’. People gave you the answer. I want to tell the BJP, sometimes dynasty is better than being nasty.”

Accusing the BJP of inducting “dynastic turncoats,” he dared the party to bring a law banning dynasty politics. Abhishek was possibly alluding to former TMC minister Suvendu Adhikari who with his family members had jumped to the BJP bandwagon ahead of the state assembly polls.

“I don’t want any ministerial berth for the next 20 years. Can Jay Shah (son of Home Minister Amit Shah) say the same about his BCCI post?” he said.

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Rebutting allegations that he was the Number 2 in the party after his aunt and chief minister, Abhishek said he was just a worker of the party like anyone else.