TMC leaders praise Rahul Gandhi’s yatra; party says opinions personal

KOLKATA, (PTI): The ruling Trinamool Congress of West Bengal on Monday decided not to attach much importance to its party leaders praising Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra and said that the grand old party should unite itself first.

Senior TMC leaders said the opinions of party MP Shatrughan Sinha and MLA Chiranjit Chakraborty lauding Gandhi’s yatra from Kanyakumari to Kashmir are “personal”.

Gandhi has now emerged as the ”frontrunner for the PM post” in the opposition camp, Sinha said during the day, adding that his long march is the “most historic” Yatra the country has witnessed in the recent past and can be compared with Lal Krishna Advani’s Ram Rath Yatra in the nineties.

Three-time TMC MLA Chiranjit Chakraborty said, ”The Bharat Jodo Yatra is a noble initiative, and there is nothing wrong with it. Everybody must support it.” The party leadership, however, declined to attach much importance to the comments of the two lawmakers.

”The Congress first needs to set its own house in order. Let the Congress first unite the party, and then go for Bharat Jodo. Whatever Shatrughan Sinha or Chiranjit Chakraborty said are their personal views and not the party’s opinion,” TMC MP Santanu Sen said.

Echoing him, party spokesperson Kunal Ghosh said the party has nothing to say on Congress’s political programme.

”The Congress is conducting a political programme in the form of Yatra. We have nothing to say about it. It is an anti-BJP programme; we want them to act. But if you look at the Yatra, there are many plus and minus points,” he said, without elaborating.

State Congress president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, however, wondered when TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee would realise the importance of the Bharat Jodo Yatra.

”We thank Shatrughan Sinha for speaking his mind and truth,” he said.

Reacting to TMC leaders praising Bharat Jodo Yatra, BJP spokesperson Samik Bhattacharya said, ”It is natural that they will support Rahul Gandhi. The TMC and Congress are two sides of the same coin.” (PTI)