Kolkata: Senior CPI(M) leader Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee on Monday accused Congress of raking up the issue of separate Telangana state in its own political interest.
"From the very beginning, we were against the issue of separate state. But Congress itself raked up the issue of Telangana for its own political interest," Bhattacharjee, a former West Bengal chief minister, told a rally here.
"Today in Parliament too, Congress faced stiff opposition over Telangana. Our question is what was the need of all this?" he said.
Stating that Telangana had fuelled the agitation in the Darjeeling hills, he said it had been "wrong" on the part of Trinamool Congress to mention Gorkhaland in the GTA pact and the decision to create Telangana had added fuel to the fire.
Bhattacharjee also slammed Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi saying he could never lead a secular and multi-lingual country like India.
"Some newspapers are trying to create a hype over Narendra Modi by saying that he is the only hope. But according to me, a person like Narendra Modi can never lead a nation like India," said Bhattacharjee.
Criticising the Congress leadership, he said "people can neither repose faith or are excited about who will lead Congress. People can`t repose faith in either old Manmohan Singh or on young Rahul Gandhi," he said.
Hitting out at the policies pursued by Congress, Bhattacharjee charged UPA government was only interested in bringing foreign investment at the cost of national interest.
"The central government only wants to bring foreign investments. They want to follow those policies that US had pursued and faced disaster," he said.
PTI
