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Kolkata, Oct 26 (IANS) The rift between Trinamool Congress and Congress widened after the former's Rajya Sabha member and spokesperson Sukhendu Sekhar Roy on Tuesday said that his party will not wait for an indefinite period with the hope that Congress will bring all the opposition under a single umbrella.
"During the last session of Parliament and soon after the Assembly elections of West Bengal, our Chairperson Mamata Banerjee visited Delhi and she met (Congress chief) Sonia Gandhi and some other leaders of different political parties. She appealed to all of them to come under one umbrella at the earliest to take on the challenges of the BJP seriously," Roy said in a press briefing soon after new inductee Sushmita Dev, who switched over from the Congress, took oath as a Rajya Sabha member on Tuesday.
"She (Banerjee) had requested Sonia Gandhi to take the initiative and call meetings of like-minded parties to prepare a common plan of action so that a nationwide campaign can be built up against the BJP. Thereafter our party waited but it seems the Congress was probably busy with its internal issues. Trinamool Congress could not wait indefinitely," he added.
"We have decided to expand our party organisations in different states and our national General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee oversees that. These things are to be decided by our party's top decision-making body. We have started the process. Now, it will depend on Congress and other parties if they want to come under one umbrella or go alone," Roy said.
Asked whether the Trinamool would form an alliance with the Congress or any other party to fight the BJP in future, he said: "It all depends on the Congress and other parties. They will decide whether to stay under one umbrella or fight separately against the BJP."
Roy also refuted the allegations that his party was poaching Congress leaders. "Switching parties is not new in Indian politics and recently people from other parties, like Kanhaiya Kumar, have also joined Congress. Trinamool never called it poaching of leaders," he said.
--IANS
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