TMC-Congress ties warm up as Mamata’s Delhi trip starts today

KOLKATA: A tweet on Sunday morning from Congress’s official Twitter handle on the Pegasus snoopgate featuring Trinamool’s national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee, saying how he was targeted because of the Bengal polls, found a response from TMC’s Rajya Sabha leader Derek O’Brien with the “Khela Hobe” slogan.
Incidentally, the warmth between Congress and TMC on social media came a day before Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee flies to Delhi, where she is expected to meet Congress president Sonia Gandhi and other senior opposition leaders.
The Twitter post by Congress and Derek’s response indicate a build-up after poll strategist Prashant Kishor met Rahul Gandhi in New Delhi earlier this month. This was followed by Congress lending support to TMC on a host of issues — including the 10th Schedule relating to defection — during the all-party meeting on July 18.

Three days later, senior Congress leader P Chidambaram and Digvijaya Singh attended TMC’s July 21 virtual rally at Delhi’s Constitution Club. In that meeting, Mamata named Sonia among the senior leaders she would invite for a mega opposition rally at the Brigade Parade Grounds “during the winter”.
Mamata is likely to meet PM Narendra Modi on Wednesday. She has a scheduled meeting with opposition leaders at Banga Bhawan later in the day. The CM has also sought an appointment with the President and is likely to be in Parliament. She will be in Delhi from July 26-30.
There was, however, no official word on the Mamata-Sonia meeting. A senior TMC leader aware of the developments refused to confirm or deny it. “No comments,” the leader said to a specific TOI query.
The Congress twitter post targeted the PM on the Pegasus issue. Featuring Abhishek with a heading ‘Aap Chronology Samajhiye’, it said: “PM Modi’s insecurities are endless. PM Modi took the adage, ‘keep your enemies closer’ a little too far.”

Bengal Congress didn’t want to read much into the post. “Let there be more clarity on the anti-Modi political equations at the Centre first. We can get into state-level adjustments after that,” said Congress leader Pradip Bhattacharya. The caution by state Congress was expected since it had aligned with the Left Front and Indian Secular Front to fight the Bengal polls under the Sanjukta Morcha platform.
“Congress has never swayed from its stated stand of opposing BJP. There are three more persons, including former election commissioner Ashok Lavasa, who were featured in the “Aap Chronology Samjhiye” series of tweets. Nobody can support the way anti-BJP voices were targeted,” said Bhattacharya. “Rahul Gandhi had been very critical of phone tapping by the Modi government. I will not go into any speculation as there is no change in the stance Congress had earlier,” he added.