Express News Service
BELAGAVI: With elections to the Goa assembly one month away, the All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) is continuing efforts to bring together all ‘anti-BJP’ forces in an attempt to defeat the BJP.
Lok Sabha MP and AITC Goa in-charge Mahua Moitra has said the Congress alone is incapable of defeating the BJP.
Reacting to a recent comment made by Congress’ Goa poll in-charge P Chidambaram, who claimed that the fight in Goa was only between the Congress and the BJP, Moitra said, “I want to remind Mr Chidambaram that despite winning the mandate, the Congress failed to form the government in 2017. This time too, the Congress alone is incapable of defeating the BJP. The Trinamool is asking all the anti-BJP forces to come together to oust the BJP in Goa.”
She said none of the parties — Congress, AAP or TMC — can claim that they are the only anti-BJP parties because all of them are here for the same cause.
ALSO READ: Cong, BJP main contestants in Goa; AAP, TMC will split non-BJP vote: Chidambaram
Reminding the Congress of the 2017 debacle, Moitra remarked, “If it was a binary fight between the BJP and the Congress, there would have been no need for the TMC to come to Goa. It is time for the Congress to wake up to its depleted strength and take notice of what the people of Goa want.”
Moitra also slammed the Congress for accusing the TMC of ‘poaching’ Congress’ leaders and said that the TMC had inducted all those Congressmen who wanted a fighting platform against BJP which the Congress was unable to provide.
She also pointed out the hypocrisy in the Congress statement, citing the example of former BJP MLA Michael Lobo who was recently inducted into the Congress. “As per the Congress party’s definition, even Mamata Banerjee and Jagan Mohan Reddy are ‘defectors’ but these are the people running their states as Chief Ministers,” she noted.
Moitra reiterated that the TMC is not the one harbouring an inflated ego around joining forces with the anti-BJP allies, with the single-minded agenda to oust the BJP from Goa. “We are calling everyone to come and talk on the table because this is the need of the hour,” she said.
