Congress MP Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday said Trinamool Congress is contesting the Assembly elections in Meghalaya in order to help BJP like they did in Goa last year.
"Trinamool contested the elections in Goa and spent a lot of money. They helped the BJP there to come to power. Their intention is to help BJP here in Meghalaya too," Gandhi said while addressing his first campaign rally in Meghalaya, at Shillong.
Gandhi made the statement almost at a time TMC supremo and Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee addressed a campaign rally at Rajabala in Garo Hills, where she said that Congress has no moral right to seek votes. "Congress was in power here in Meghalaya for a long time but they failed to deliver. Trinamool Congress is the alternative for the people of Meghalaya as all other parties betrayed them. Trinamool will change the government in Meghalaya and we will remove BJP from the Centre soon," Mamata said. "It is TMC, which is constantly fighting against BJP," she said.
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Reacting to Gandhi's statement, TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee said Congress failed to resist BJP. "Their irrelevance, incompetence and insecurity have put them in a state of delirium. I urge Rahul Gandhi to revisit their politics of vanity instead of attacking us. By the same logic, when Congress contested 92 seats in Bengal elections in 2021, was their idea to help BJP?"
Alleging that BJP and RSS were trying to capture Meghalaya in order to destroy the culture, tradition and language by imposing its ideology of one nation, one language and one culture. "They refuse to accept the fact that India is a multicultural nation and are constantly trying to impose their ideology of one nation, one identity. But we will not allow them to impose their ideology and will continue to fight for the protection of your culture, language and tradition," Gandhi said.
"There was large-scale corruption under the present government in Meghalaya. This time we have fielded many young candidates and women with a vision of inclusive Meghalaya.
In the 2018 Assembly elections, the Trinamool Congress did not win a single seat but became the principal Opposition party in November 2021 when 12 Congress MLAs led by former CM Mukul Sangma joined the Mamata Banerjee party. TMC has fielded 57 candidates out of 60 seats with a target to wrest power from the National People's Party and its allies. The NPP led by CM Conrad Sangma is also contesting in 57 seats with a target of absolute majority. BJP, which was a minor ally in the NPP-led government with two MLAs, however, has put up candidates in all 60 seats. BJP is also making corruption allegations against the NPP.
Congress had emerged as the single largest party with 21 seats in the 2018 Assembly polls but could not form an alliance. The party saw an exodus of all the MLAs since then and most of them joined TMC. Shillong MP, Vincent Pala is now the only prominent leader in the Congress camp. The party, however, has put up candidates in all 60 seats this time, out of which 47 are below 40 and are new faces.