Congress needs to hit streets, shed armchair politics: TMC’s Abhishek Banerjee

File Photo (PTI)

Kolkata: Trinamool Congress general secretary Abhishek Banerjee on Wednesday advised the Congress to hit the streets against the BJP, instead of sitting idle and indulging in "armchair politics".

The advice comes days after the young TMC Turk criticised the Congress for allegedly failing to put up a credible fight against the saffron camp.

Banerjee was speaking at a function where former Congress chief minister of Goa Luizinho Faleiro joined the TMC here.

It also happened on a day when disgruntled former Congress chief minister of Punjab Capt Amarinder Singh met Union Home Minister Amit Shah amid speculation of his political intentions.

"The Congress is sitting idle in Delhi. They need to hit the streets like the TMC and reach out to the people. Congress has to leave its armchair politics and social media politics.

"The TMC is not going to be cowed down. We will take the BJP head-on and defeat them," the Diamond Harbour MP told the press conference.

Asked whether or not his regular attacks on the Congress would weaken opposition unity, Banerjee said the TMC couldn't be blamed for putting up a fight against the BJP.

"Our fight is not against the Congress. Our fight is to save India, and for that, it is essential to defeat the BJP. In the last seven years, Congress has faced defeat at the hands of the BJP several times. It has been the TMC that has completely routed the BJP," the nephew of Mamata Banerjee said.

The bonhomie between the Congress and the TMC was strained recently after the latter's mouthpiece, "Jago Bangla," claimed that party supremo Mamata Banerjee, and not Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, has emerged as the face of the opposition against Prime Minister Narendra Modi.