Following the arrest of the Congress party candidate for the Nandigram by-election in West Bengal, a war of words has erupted on social media between Lok Sabha Opposition Leader Rahul Gandhi and Trinamool Congress dissident leader Ritabrata Banerjee.
Yesterday (Sept. 18), former Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee announced that she would support Milan Pradhan, the candidate fielded by the Congress party in the upcoming Nandigram by-election in West Bengal.
Following this, within a few hours of Mamata’s support, Milan Pradhan was arrested in connection with the case related to the 2007 anti-land acquisition protest. As this incident created a major stir, the Congress party has condemned it.
Following this, Congress senior leader and Lok Sabha Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi released a video last night, criticizing Milan Pradhan’s arrest as a political vendetta and a murder of democracy.
In that video, he said:
“The BJP has no faith in fair elections. That is why, at times, it tries to retain power through vote theft, at times through toppling governments, and at times through taking over parties.
They have no interest in contesting elections; they want to abolish elections altogether. The Congress party will not be afraid of any of this, nor will it bow down. We will fight, and we will certainly win,” he said.
Within hours of Rahul Gandhi releasing the video, Rithabrata Banerjee, the leader of the Trinamool Congress party’s dissident faction, issued a statement opposing it.
Regarding this, in the statement he released,
“We, the Democratic Trinamool Congress faction, have filed a complaint against Milan Pradhan, who has three murder cases pending against him. It is mandatory to execute an arrest warrant during an election. I think the state Congress leadership did not inform Rahul Gandhi of the true details about this,” he said.
Earlier, the Election Commission of India had frozen the Trinamool Congress party’s name and symbol for contesting the by-election. In addition, separate names and symbols were allotted to the Mamata and Ritabrata factions.
It is noteworthy that after the Mamata faction candidate fielded in the Nandigram constituency withdrew his nomination, Mamata Banerjee had expressed her support for the Congress candidate.
Following the arrest of the Congress party candidate for the Nandigram constituency by-election in West Bengal, a war of words has erupted on social media between Rahul Gandhi and Ritabrata Banerjee.
