New Delhi: Amid talks of Trinamool Congress (TMC) trying to expand it's national footprint, with West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee spearheading the efforts to unite the opposition parties against Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the TMC supremo took a dig at Congress leader Rahul Gandhi over the lack of an expert team.
Targetting the Congress leader, Banerjee said, ''If no one does anything and lives abroad, how will it work? I asked the Congress several times to build an expert team that would guide us but the Congress did not listen," Mamata said while talking to the members of the civil society in Mumbai, adding, "We want you to form a committee of civil society all over India and tell us what to do. If an innocent is lodged in jail, we can try to get him out.''
It has been observed that Mamata Banerjee has been vocal about Congress in recent times with several Congress leaders joining her party. In Meghalaya, 12 MLAs left the Congress and joined the TMC. The TMC is currently campaigning in Goa for the first time where BJP is in power and Congress is the main opposition.
Banerjee said that all is good in West Bengal but they have to expand the presence that would increase the competition. She said the BJP will have to go if all the regional parties come together. She also raised the slogan of "BJP hatao desh bachao."
Refusing to back off on her fight, the West Bengal Chief Minister said, "We are not coming to Maharashtra. We will not go anywhere where the regional party is doing good work. We will support our regional colleagues."
The meeting in Mumbai was attended by people associated with the film industry like Javed Akhtar, Mahesh Bhatt, social activist Medha Patkar, Sudheendra Kulkarni, and NCP leader Majeed Memon along with Congress leader Shatrughan Sinha among others.