Finance Minister Arun Jaitley yesterday ridiculed the Congress, saying it was only looking for piggyback rides on alliances to stay in existence.
In Kolkata to campaign for the West Bengal assembly polls, the senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader ruled out the Congress as a contender which has tied up with the Communist Party of India (Marxist)-led Left Front.
“So far as Congress is concerned, nothing can be expected from them. Both their politics and policies are opportunistic. Battling for existence, they are looking for piggyback rides. In search of a few seats, they aligned with JD-U (Janata Dal- United) and RJD (Rashtriya Janata Dal) in Bihar, in Tamil Nadu with the DMK (Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam) and in Bengal with the Left Front,” he said.
Jaitley even said the Congress’s ambitions have dipped so low that they are content being the “tail-enders”.
“In its battle for survival, Congress is content playing the second or the third fiddle. The level of its own aspirations has come down, its level of ambitions is so low that it doesn’t mind becoming the tail-ender of an alliance. Be it Bihar, Tamil Nadu or West Bengal, it is the tail-ender of the alliance,” he said.
“Without any political or ideological stand, the Congress will never be a serious player,” he said.
Charging the Left Front with “destroying West Bengal” and accusing Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s ruling Trinamool Congress of belying the people’s expectations, Jaitley batted for his party to usher in development in the state.
West Bengal holds the second round of elections today and Assam the second and final phase today.
The fate of several political stalwarts, including CPM state secretary Surjya Kanta Mishra, will be decided as 31 constituencies spread over three districts vote today in West Bengal.
Thirteen of the constituencies are in West Midnapore, and nine each in Bankura and Burdwan.
Voters in 18 constituencies - six in West Midnapore, nine in Purulia and three in Bankura - exercised their franchise in the first phase on April 4.
In the 2011 assembly polls, the Trinamool Congress bagged 17, and its then ally Congress three of the seats now going for the balloting. The Left Front, then in power, won the remaining 11.
But the political alignments and allegiances have changed dramatically since then. While the Congress has now entered into a seat adjustment with the Left Front, the Trinamool has virtually established its monopoly in these areas in subsequent polls to the panchayat and the Lok Sabha.
A case in point is Narayangarh of West Midnapore district, from where Mishra has been winning repeatedly since 1991. Five years back, despite the Trinamool wave that swept away the Left Front regime, Mishra retained the seat, albeit with a reduced margin of 7,109 votes.
However, since then, the Trinamool triumphed in the 2013 rural polls, snatching 13 of the 16 gram panchayats, while its candidate Sandhya Roy took a lead of nearly 27,000 votes from the segment a year later.
But the LF spearhead, the CPM seems confident of coming up trumps this time around on the strength of the doctor-turned-politician’s reputation and his rising popularity graph at the way he conducted himself as leader of the opposition in the assembly.
However, Banerjee, canvassing at Mishra’s ‘home turf’, has personally appealed to the people of Narayangarh to defeat him.
“Defeat him and I will give you whatever you want. I will give you the moon. I will hold my first rally here after the elections,” Banerjee said.
“She has been promising to give whatever she can to ensure my defeat. She has realised that she will never return to power again. That is why she is making promises which she knows will never be fulfilled,” said Mishra, known for his sarcastic retorts.
A total of over 220,000 voters, including over 100,000 women, will exercise their franchise across 269 polling stations today.
While both the Congress and the Left have remained evasive on declaring the chief ministerial candidate, prominent Congress leaders Manas Bhunia and Abu Hshem Khan Choudhury not only have dubbed Mishra the face of the alliance on several occasions but also declared that “Mishra will be the chief minister” if the coalition came to power.
In Assam, over 10mn voters will exercise their franchise for the 61 assembly seats today and decide the fate of 525 candidates.