Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury issues apology to Derek O'Brien
Adhir Chowdhury today said the Bengal government wasn't giving permissions for events linked to the Congress yatra.
New Delhi: Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury has apologised to Trinamool Congress leader Derek O'Brien for calling him a foreigner. Amid the Congress party's efforts to woo its miffed INDIA bloc partner Mamata Banerjee, Chowdhury expressed regrets over his remark on X. "I conveyed my regrets to MR DEREK O'BRIEN for a word inadvertently uttered by me to him as FOREIGNER," he said.
Chowdhury had taken the jibe at the Trinamool MP after the latter squarely blamed him for derailing the INDIA bloc in Bengal. "Derek O’Brien is a foreigner, he knows a lot of things. Ask him," he had said.
O'Brien said the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) had many detractors but only two -- the BJP and Chowdhury -- have repeatedly spoken out against the bloc.
"Three reasons for the alliance not working in Bengal – Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury and Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury," he told reports on Thursday.
He also accused the Congress leader of working at the behest of the Bharatiya Janata Party.
Mamata Banerjee has called off the INDIA alliance in West Bengal. On Tuesday, she claimed the Congress had rejected her seat-sharing offer and was making "unjustified" demands. She also said the party hadn't personally informed her that Rahul Gandhi's Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra would pass through Bengal.
Chowdhury had claimed Banerjee offered his party only two seats.
Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury claims roadblocks in Bengal
Chowdhury today said the Bengal government wasn't giving permissions for events linked to the yatra.
Speaking to reporters in Siliguri on Friday, Chowdhury said the schedule of Gandhi's yatra was submitted to the administration in the state long before.
"In some places, we are facing roadblocks as we are not getting permission to organise public meetings, citing exams. The Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra has faced problems in the Northeast, including Assam, and now it is facing problems in TMC-ruled West Bengal as well. We were denied permission to hold a public meeting in Siliguri. We expected better cooperation from the state government. Anyways, the route and the itinerary of the yatra remain the same except for a few changes," he said.
The BJP took potshots over Chowdhury's claims.
"Mamata Banerjee's decision to deny Rahul Gandhi's Yatra permission is like the last nail in the coffin of I.N.D.I. Alliance. The decision is intended to humiliate the Congress... But it is interesting to see the Congress suffer from stockholm syndrome and continue to plead Mamata Banerjee to join the Yatra for just 5 minutes," BJP leader Amit Malviya wrote on X.
The Congress has been trying to mollify Banerjee with Jairam Ramesh saying the INDIA bloc can't be imagined without her.
Two years after the BJP won 18 Lok Sabha seats in Bengal, Banerjee defeated the party in the 2021 assembly elections.
With inputs from PTI
