Malda (WB): Amidst the ongoing verbal
spat between the two allies, state Congress president Pradip
Bhattacharjee on Tuesday sought Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's
intervention to keep the alliance going, but said it would
quit if the party high command so desired.
Urging Banerjee, also Trinamool Congress chief, to
look into the problems plaguing the Trinamool-led alliance,
Bhattacharjee told reporters that Banerjee should intervene in
the interest of both parties and to keep the alliance going.
Bhattacharjee said his party had formed an alliance
with the Trinamool Congress only because people wanted it.
It was the Congress high command which had put the
seal of approval on the alliance, and "we will leave the
alliance only if the high command wanted it", he said.
Bhattacharjee said his party did not commit any wrong
by highlighting problems faced by paddy, potato and jute
growers in the state.
''We consider it our duty to speak of the problems of
farmers. What will they do if they cannot sell their
produce?'' he said.
He also defended Congress minister in the state
government Manoj Chakraborty using the state secretariat as a
stage to attack Trinamool Congress yesterday and said the
trend was set by Trinamool Congress.
Chakraborty had yesterday slammed Trinamool for
launching attack against his party and exhorted it to maintain
restraint and perform 'rajdharma'.
"We have fought as an alliance partner and came to
power. We are not there on someone's mercy. The Congress is
not a party of Tom, Dick, Harry. It is an all-India party. It
has sent us (in the government). We will leave ministry as a
rejected slipper when our party will ask us to do so,"
Chakraborty, minister of state for small industries, had said.
PTI
First Published: Tuesday, January 10, 2012, 21:48