After Rahul Gandhi's attack, Mamata Banerjee's 'small boy' rebuke

Rahul Gandhi had attacked Mamata Banerjee at a rally in Malda but the TMC chief dismissed his allegation.

File photo

Kolkata: Trinamool Congress chief and West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee has referred to Rahul Gandi as a 'small boy' after the Congress president had attacked her for violence in the state.

The two leaders may have shared the stage once upon a time but there is no love lost between them in the run-up to the Lok Sabha 2019 election. Last week, Rahul had called his former MP from North Malda a 'betrayer.' Congress' Mausam Benazir Noor had joined TMC in January and Rahul was not too pleased with the move. At a rally, he had urged people to punish the former MP for the betrayal' before training his guns on Mamata and accusing her of being high-handed. He had even compared her to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and said that both leaders are guilty of running their respective governments without consulting anyone else.

The rebuke from Mamata on Wednesday was short, crisp and yet scathing. "A small boy has said something. I do not wish to comment on that."

For any bleak possibility of an alliance between the TMC and Congress, the recent sparring comes as a reality check. Both parties had previously attempted to collaborate in the fight to bring down the Narendra Modi government and while leaders of both parties remain focused on that front, their side quests have now begun to include taking potshots at one another.

In all of this, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is expected to have a mighty laugh with several of its leaders claiming that the opposition is in disarray.