NEW DELHI: Congress President Rahul Gandhi find the party leaders in state after state opposed to his plan of the “grand alliance” of all parties to oust Prime Minister Modi in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
He was stuck by the Uttar Pradesh leaders warning that the Congress will be decimated if it aligns with the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party that have already teamed up caring little for the Congress as if it doesn’t exist.
The latest is the confusion in the West Bengal unit of the Congress where the party leaders were vertically divided in a consultation Rahul had on Friday as one section supported alliance with Trinamul Congress of Chief Minister Mamata Bannerjee while a slightly larger number pitched for a truck with the CPI(M).
Rahul has been interacting with leaders from every state before finalising the strategy for the 2019 elections. The party sources said although the decision will be taken in every state keeping in mind the primary objective of preventing Narendra Modi from returning to power, Rahul is going through the consultation process to understand the local dynamics.
In his meeting with 26 West Bengal leaders, including five MPs, Rahul felt confused when some of the veterans laid stress on a tie-up with the CPI(M) in the party’s long-term interest and yet advocated a pact with Trinamul to perform relatively better in the Lok Sabha polls. He doesn’t know if the CPI(M) will agree to have any truck if the Congress wants to pull Mamata’s Trinamul also in the grand alliance.
West Bengal Congress president Adhir Chowdhury, leader of Opposition Abdul Mannan, Behrampore MLA Manoj Chakraborty and former Raiganj MP Deepa Dasmunshi were avowedly against any proximity to Trinamul, asserting that it is Mamata’s agenda to destroy the Congress in the state.
