The Trinamool Congress (TMC) on Thursday justified its decision to maintain a distance from the Congress on the Adani issue, saying the Grand Old Party cannot seek its support as per convenience.
“In Tripura, you will be friends with the Left, that’s your choice; in West Bengal, you will fight us tooth and nail; then in Meghalaya, before the elections, you will write a litany (of charges) on how bad the TMC is,” the party’s Rajya Sabha floor leader Derek O’Brien said.
O’Brien also pointed to Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury’s remark that TMC president and West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee had an understanding with the BJP and (Gautam) Adani.
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Without naming anyone, he said: “One of your senior Parliamentarians and leader of the Congress in Lok Sabha will everyday make wild charges…TMC is very clear that you can’t have separate rules. So, with this kind of situation and the kind of statements being issued everyday against the TMC leadership in Bengal, we won’t sign a letter on a Congress party letterhead. It is not possible. This is the reality.”
The TMC on Wednesday skipped a march of 16 Opposition parties, led by the Congress, to the Enforcement Directorate (ED) office over allegations of fraud and stock manipulation by the Adani Group. It also refused to be one of the signatories to a letter to the federal investigative agency.
O’Brien also said that the party “is very clear that we want a Supreme Court-monitored probe” on the Adani issue.
“All opposition parties, barring a few, are united for a probe by a joint parliamentary committee (JPC) in the Adani scam. Those who don’t want a JPC tried to give an escape route to the government. Some parties (like AAP, BRS) who are opposed to us at the state level have also joined us in demanding a JPC,” Congress general secretary for communication Jairam Ramesh said.
