Soma Mookherjee
KOLKATA, 19 APRIL: Mr Ripun Bora, former Congress Panchayat and Rural Affairs minister who left the Congress and joined Trinamul Congress on Sunday in presence of Trinamul’s national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee today said at a Press Conference, “I quit the Congress last week and have joined the All India Trinamul Congress under the able leadership of the dynamic Mamata Banerjee. I visited Kolkata and spoke to the West Bengal Chief Minister and AITC National General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee.”
“In my resignation letter, I stated my reasons for leaving the Congress party. I have raised my grievances in Congress forums regularly, but nothing much was done,” he alleged.
“I believed Congress, being the Grand Old Party, was well placed to take on the might of the ruling BJP, which is destroying all the institutions of this great nation. But instead of acting on the BJP, the Congress has been bickering with internal fights, which is allowing the BJP to have a free pass in Assam and the rest of the country,” he alleged.
Sushmita Dev, Trinamul Congress Rajya Sabha MP today stated that Ripun Bora is a veteran politician from Assam and a stalwart leader. During the recent Rajya Sabha polls, he contested as a Congress candidate, but the party did not fight for him. In fact, after his losing out on the Rajya Sabha seat, there is not even one Congress leader from Rajya Sabha in the entire North East. Congress didn’t even fight for the last man standing for a Rajya Sabha seat, they just let it go,” alleged Ms Dev.
“There is a significant populace in Assam, which opposes the BJP and Trinamul is trying to give voice to that section of people. We want a formidable opposition to the BJP,” said Ms Dev.
“We will be building an organisation in Assam. The three regions of the State — Upper
Assam, Lower Assam and Barak Valley — are all different and Mamata Banerjee’s vision is to unite the three regions to defeat the BJP,” she said.
“I have made my stand clear on CAA-NRC. I will never support any law, which is directly against the Constitution of my nation and discriminates people on the basis of religion,’ she added.
“The BJP is good at spinning things. The Assam CM, mischievously, used my statement to create discord between Hindus and Muslims of Assam.
“I questioned the BJP government on what it planned to do for those people who would be left out under the NRC, would they be rendered stateless or would Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina accept them back to Bangladesh?” she asked.
The Assam CM, Himanta Biswa Sarma, however, claimed in front of Muslims that I supported CAA and in front of Hindus, he stated that I opposed CAA,” she alleged.
“The BJP, which has made a joke of the Assam Accord, now wants to give citizenship on the basis of religion. We, however, believe that it is wrong and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has clearly stated that she will not allow the NRC exercise in Bengal,” Ms Dev said.
Jawhar Sircar, Trinamul Rajya Sabha MP, said “You can’t hide bad news for very long. We have crossed the 6% mark for retail inflation. The entire country is suffering. This is nothing but daylight robbery by the government.”
“We have only received the first impact of the Ukraine crisis so far. The inflation in our country is being fuelled deliberately because our policymakers have no idea how to manage the economic crisis. There will be more such impacts in the coming months,” Mr Sircar added.
“The spirit to fight is disappearing from the Opposition leaders, they are being demoralised by the constant harassment and the frequent ED and IT raids on them,” alleged Mr Sircar.
Trinamul Congress, however, has shown resilience and the will to fight and defeat the BJP, as witnessed in the last state polls in Bengal,” he added.
Tags: #RipunBora #Assam #TMC #Congress
