Bengal Congress leaders meet Rahul, complain about Trinamool

Kolkata/ New Delhi: A group of 25 Congress leaders from West Bengal Monday called on party general secretary Rahul Gandhi in New Delhi and complained to him that the Trinamool Congress was trying to "finish off" the party in the state.

The leaders included ten district presidents and several MLAs, who apprised Gandhi about the political situation in the state where the Congress runs a coalition government with Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool. The two parties had forged an alliance in the April-May assembly polls to bring to an end the 34-year uninterrupted reign of the Communist-led Left Front.
A Congress leader in the delegation that met Gandhi at 10, Janpath, in New Delhi alleged that Mamata Banerjee was trying to reduce the Congress to insignificance in the state.
"She is trying to make the Congress' position as weak as it is in states like Bihar and Tamil Nadu. Her target is less the CPI-M (Communist Party of India-Marxist) and more Congress as she wants to fully capture the anti-Left Front space," said the leader.

He said while the party ministers are not being given due importance, the Trinamool was offering inducements to lure away Congressmen in strongholds like Murshidabad and northern Bengal.
Among the leaders who were part of the delegation were Devi Ghosal, Shankar Malakar, Manoj Pandey and Ajoy Ghosh, Swapan Dubey, lawmakers Nepal Mahato, Asit Mal and Rabindranth Bhattacharya.
They also pleaded that Congress be allowed to go it alone in the state panchayat (rural bodies) election in 2013.
Gandhi did not make any comment, but gave the delegation a patient hearing, a party leader said.
Source: IANS