Kolkata, May 30 (IANS): Political slugfest between the Congress and Trinamool Congress is continuing over the shifting of the lone Congress representative in West Bengal Assembly, Bayron Biswas to the state ruling party.
Biswas got elected as a Left Front- supported Congress candidate in the bypoll to the Sagardighi Assembly constituency in Murshidabad district just three months ago.
Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh issued a Twitter message on Tuesday condemning the Trinamool Congress leadership for poaching in other parties by luring their elected representatives.
"Three months after he was elected as a Congress MLA in a historic victory Bayron Biswas has been lured away by the TMC in West Bengal. This is a complete betrayal of the mandate of the people of the Sagardighi Assembly constituency. Such poaching which has happened earlier in Goa, Meghalaya, Tripura and other states is not designed to strengthen Opposition unity and only serves the BJP's objectives," Ramesh said in the Twitter message.
Earlier the state Congress president in West Bengal and veteran Lok Sabha member Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said that Biswas ultimately succumbed to the pressure from the ruling party and the administration. "First he was offered money by Trinamool Congress. When he refused he started receiving threats. This is the strategy of Trinamool Congress. First they try to lure through money and if that fails they threaten," Chowdhury said.
Biswas's own logic is that mentally he was always with Trinamool Congress. "I joined Congress just because Trinamool Congress did not give me a nomination in the Sagardighi bypolls. Now I am back to Trinamool Congress again to be part of the developmental activities undertaken by the state government," he said.
Reacting to Ramesh's Twitter message, Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha member Dr Santanu Sen said that the Congress leadership in West Bengal should understand that instead of trying to weaken Trinamool, which is the strongest political force in the state, the concentration should be to combat BJP together.