‘Mamata is afraid of BJP’: Cong’s Adhir Ranjan on TMC chief’s ‘40 seats’ jibe

Congress leader in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury on Saturday lashed out at West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee over her remark doubting that the grand old party will win 40 seats in the Lok Sabha elections.
“Neither BJP nor Mamata Banerjee wants good results for Congress. It is unfortunate if a leader of the INDIA bloc says this. She (Mamata Banerjee) herself joined the INDIA alliance. She is afraid of BJP and that’s why she is changing her stance,” Chowdhury, who is also the Bengal Congress unit chief, was quoted by PTI as saying at a briefing in Murshidabad.
“BJP says that Congress is over, Congress has nothing. Echoing BJP, Mamata Banerjee says that even if Congress gets 40 seats, it is enough. BJP and PM Modi say that Congress does appeasement politics, Mamata Banerjee also says the same thing”, he was quoted by ANI as saying.
“Why are BJP and Didi speaking the same language?… For you (Mamata Banerjee), the state is later…For Rahul Gandhi the country is first, everything else is later…” the Congress leader added. ALSO READ: ‘Not local level elections’: Cong’s reply to INDIA ally Mamata’s ‘40 seats’ barbChowdhury’s attack comes a day after th TMC chief dared the Congress to defeat the BJP in Uttar Pradesh including in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s constituency Varanasi. “If you have the courage, defeat the BJP in UP, Banaras, Rajasthan, and Madhya Pradesh,” she had said days after declaring he intention to contest all 42 seats in the state alone. ALSO READ: ‘Mamata an opportunist’: Adhir Ranjan’s jibe after Rahul Gandhi says seat talks underway
The differences between INDIA allies TMC and Congress have come to the fore over seat sharing for the upcoming general elections. Mamata Banerjee has already said that she will not share a single seat with the Congress till it severs ties with the Left, the CPM-led alliance that ruled Bengal for 34 year before being routed by her party in 2011. “I told them (Congress) I won’t spare even a single seat. I asked them to first sever ties with the CPI(M). I haven’t forgotten how the CPI(M) tortured our men,” she had said.