New Delhi: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday said that the opposition parties are united at the national level but at the state level parties have different obligations, reported ANI.


Addressing a press conference, Banerjee said, "We (Opposition parties) are all together at the national level. At the state level, parties must understand that state parties have their own obligations..."


She also slammed Congress for its remarks on Trinamool Congress (TMC) after the only Congress MLA in West Bengal, Bayron Biswas, joined TMC.


She said, "We have contested only Meghalaya and Goa but when Congress contested Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, Gujarat...we never disturbed them. Instead of disturbing them, we supported them."






Attacking the grand old party, she said that the Congress wants to remain the sole national party in the country. 


Her remarks came after Jairam Ramesh, Congress General Secretary and in charge of Communications, took to Twitter to launch a scathing attack on the TMC, highlighting Biswas' swift transition to the ruling party merely three months after securing a historic win as a Congress MLA.


Jairam Ramesh deemed this act as a complete betrayal of the people's mandate in the Sagardighi Assembly constituency.


In a tweet, Ramesh stated, "Three months after he was elected as a Congress MLA in a historic victory, Bayron Biswas has been lured away by the TMC in West Bengal. This is a complete betrayal of the mandate of the people of the Sagardighi Assembly constituency. Such poaching, which has happened earlier in Goa, Meghalaya, Tripura, and other states, is not designed to strengthen Opposition unity and only serves the BJP's objectives."


Implications For Opposition Unity


The defection of Biswas, Congress's sole MLA in the state assembly, to the ruling TMC on Monday, in the presence of TMC general secretary Abhishek Banerjee, has left Congress in a weakened position in the state.


Congress drew a parallel between this incident and previous instances of alleged MLA poaching in states such as Goa, Meghalaya, Tripura, and others.


The timing of this division between the two parties is noteworthy, as attempts are underway to unite the Opposition and present a formidable challenge to the BJP in the upcoming 2024 Lok Sabha Elections.