After virtually pulling the plug on the I.N.D.I.A. bloc in West Bengal while paying lip service to it nationally, the Mamata Banerjee government has pulled out all stops to create pinpricks for the Congress Party.
Apart from accusing the Congress of not following coalition dharma by not inviting the Trinamool Congress while Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra is traversing Bengal, the Mamata Banerjee Government on Monday denied permission for the Gandhi scion and his core team to have their lunch at an Irrigation department guest house in Malda.
Pradesh Congress sources today told The Daily Guardian that the district party leaders had written to the State administration on January 24, seeking to reserve the Irrigation department guesthouse in Bhaluka, under Ratua police station, to host a luncheon meeting for Rahul Gandhi and his core group.
“Today, barely 48 hours before the event, the State Government officials refused permission for the lunch. This is the depth to which the Mamata Banerjee Government can go. This is the height of pettiness. This is Mamata’s true character and I have been constantly warning our high command about this.” Pradesh Congress chief and senior leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said.
Congress sources said that the request had been denied on the pretext that Mamata Banerjee would be visiting the district on that day. “But as far as we know, she is not going to be anywhere near this guesthouse,” the leader added.
Congress leaders in West Bengal have been criticising the State Government for “constantly putting up hurdles” before Rahul Gandhi’s Nyay Yatra.
District Congress general secretary and former MLA Bhupendranath Halder alleged that if the Government officials allowed the Congress to use the guest house, “they would incur the wrath of the Chief Minister. Therefore, the appeal of the Congress has been rejected”.
Dulal Chandra Sarkar, vice-president of the district Trinamool Congress, took a swipe at the Congress and said: “The Congress sleeps all year round and only wakes up before the elections. They have no other work but to constantly complain. In January, various projects and fairs of various departments of the State Government are being held in this district and across the State. So, Government guest houses are booked so that officials of various departments can stay. It is not possible to give a guest house to a Congress leader if he comes suddenly. This does not work in Bengal.”
Just days earlier, the police had refused to let the Congress members participating in the yatra to spend the night at Baharampur stadium, saying that a police recruitment test would be held there. As an alternative, the administration has proposed to give the nearby FUC ground, which was not acceptable to the Congress leaders.
Congress leaders have also accused the Trinamool Congress of tearing the banners and cutouts that the party leaders had put up along Rahul Gandhi’s route in north Bengal.