Kolkata:

Former Staff India cricketer Yusuf Pathan is the Trinamool’s candidate from Baharampur, a Congress stronghold represented by its Lok Sabha chief Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury. Although the Congress is but to call its candidates for Bengal, Mr Chowdhury is prone to search a recontest from the seat that he has represented 5 instances as an MP.

On his possible face-off in opposition to the previous cricketer, Mr Chowdhury mentioned the Trinamool ought to have despatched Mr Pathan to Rajya Sabha if the occasion needed to honour him.

“Outsiders had been nominated to the Rajya Sabha from Bengal. If Trinamool needed to honour Yusuf Pathan, it ought to have despatched him to the Rajya Sabha. If Mamata Banerjee had good intentions, she would have requested the (INDIA) alliance to get Yusuf Pathan a seat in Gujarat. However right here he’s chosen as a candidate to polarise the frequent man and to assist the BJP, in order that Congress will be defeated,” he mentioned.

He mentioned Ms Banerjee has confirmed at the moment that no political occasion ought to belief a pacesetter like her.

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“Mamata Banerjee is in concern that if she continues to be within the INDIA alliance, (Prime Minister) Modi ji shall be sad. By separating herself from the INDIA alliance, she has despatched a message to the PMO, ‘do not be sad with me, I’m not standing to combat in opposition to the BJP’,” mentioned Mr Chowdhury.

Mr Pathan thanked Ms Banerjee for the chance and mentioned, “As representatives of the folks, it’s our obligation to uplift the poor and disadvantaged, and that’s what I hope to attain.”

The Mamata Banerjee-led occasion at the moment introduced candidates for all 42 seats in Bengal, making it official there isn’t any alliance with the non-BJP events within the state.

The Congress and the Trinamool are collectively within the INDIA alliance – no less than for the optics – although it has not formed right into a seat-sharing technique in Bengal. The Trinamool is believed to have supplied Baharampur and one other seat to the Congress, however determined to go solo because the grand outdated occasion pressed for a much bigger share of seats.

In a swift response, the Congress mentioned it has repeatedly declared its need to have a decent seat-sharing settlement with the Trinamool in West Bengal.

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“The Indian Nationwide Congress has all the time maintained that such an settlement must be finalised by negotiations and never by unilateral bulletins. The Indian Nationwide Congress has all the time needed the INDIA group to combat the BJP collectively,” mentioned senior Congress chief Jairam Ramesh.

Fielding a well-liked determine like Mr Pathan from Mr Chowdhury’s stronghold is being seen because the Trinamool’s response to his repeated assaults on the occasion.

Mr Chowdhury, a staunch Trinamool critic, had earlier mentioned his occasion “will not beg for seats from the TMC” and accused the INDIA companion of “serving Prime Minister Narendra Modi” quite than strengthening the opposition alliance. Livid over such remarks, the Trinamool had asserted that “badmouthing alliance companions and seat sharing cannot go hand in hand”.