Congress leader Ronnie V. Lyngdoh today alleged that Trinamool Congress (TMC) and BJP have secret understanding regarding the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.
“Compared to West Bengal which has about 42 Lok Sabha seats, Meghalaya has only two seats. So if the TMC is trying to find fault by saying that the Meghalaya Congress went ahead and declared the candidates, why don’t they declare that they’ve agreed on seat sharing in West Bengal?” Lyngdoh told media persons here.
“Is there a secret understanding between the TMC and the BJP to prevent consolidation of votes of people who would like to see a secular democratic country like India and to defeat BJP, which is communal and is trying to polarise the people on so many issues?” he asked.
He further asked, “Why didn’t TMC which is part of the INDIA bloc come to an understanding with Congress for seat sharing in West Bengal? If they could have done that in West Bengal perhaps we could have done it in Meghalaya.”
Stating that the BJP understands very clearly that West Bengal has a sizable number of minority votes, Lyngdoh said if two seats in Meghalaya are so important to TMC and 42 seats in West Bengal are not important, it speaks volumes of the “double standard” by TMC.
He also alleged that while CBI and other central agencies have been used against other opposition leaders in the country no such things happened in West Bengal.
“It is for the people to judge if there is any secret understanding between the TMC and the BJP,” Lyngdoh said.
He also took a dig at the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and termed it as a petty politics of the BJP just before the elections to divide the people on religious lines.
“We request the people of India, the people of Meghalaya to vote for a party that stands for secularism, that will protect the Constitution, that will ensure that democracy is maintained,” he added.