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| Election in mind, Cong launches membership drive in Bengal |
| BS Reporter / Kolkata Sep 07, 2010, 00:59 IST |
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Rahul launches attack on CPI(M); says funds not utilised
Even as cheif ministerial candidate Mamata Banerjee looks to unseat the three-decade old Communist rule in West Bengal, ally Congress has made its ambitions plan for the state in singular capacity clearer than ever before.
In his first-ever public rally in Kolkata, All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary, and scion of Nehru-Gandhi family, Rahul Gandhi, launched a membership drive for the Youth Congress in West Bengal.
The drive is a part of the larger agenda, outlined by Union finance minister Pranab Mukherjee, also present at the event which was bereft of any mention of the Congress ally, Trinamool Congress (TMC), the second largest ally of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA), at the Centre.
“West Bengal, along with Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Bihar, forms 40 per cent of the 543 member strong Lok Sabha. A party that is able to capture these states will form the government at the Centre without any requirement of a coalition,” said Mukherjee.
Surely enough, similar drives have been launched in Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Bihar over the past year.
At the rally, which reverberated with 'Vande Mataram’ and ‘Rahul Gandhi Zindabad’, the AICC general secretary launched a scathing attack on the CPI(M), accusing the party of having grabbed crores of rupees from central funds.
“The government has sent crores by way of funds, under plans such as National Rural employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) which have been siphoned off to the CPI(M) coffers,” said Gandhi.
Gandhi, the Youth Congress president, said that the forthcoming demise of the CPI(M) in Bengal could be linkened to the end of communism in Russia, adding that the days of the Communists in West Bengal were numbered.
The drive, which has been announced close on the heels of the West Bengal Assembly elections, scheduled for 2011 and the lack of mention about Mamata Banerjee or the Congress alliance with TMC in any of the rhetoric, signals ambition within the ranks of the Congress in Bengal.
The enthusiasm of the Congress workers led to a near-stampede situation at the rally, creating difficulty to control the crowd for the SPG personnel, especially when Gandhi decided to cross barricades and to shake hands with people.
In the city on a day’s visit, Rahul Gandhi also visited the governor, M K Narayanan. Also present at the rally were Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) president Manas Bhuinya and Congress member of parliament (MP) Deepa Dasmunsi.
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