War of words erupts as West Bengal alliance divides Congress
Fissures have deepened within the Congress with senior leader Anand Sharma questioning the party's alliance with the Indian Secular Front for the West Bengal election.
FollowFissures have deepened within the Congress with senior leader Anand Sharma questioning the party's alliance with the Indian Secular Front for the West Bengal election.
Taking to Twitter, Anand Sharma said that Congress alliance with parties like ISF and other such forces "militates against the core ideology of the party" and Gandhian and Nehruvian secularism, which forms the soul of the party.Â
Stating that these issues need to be approved by the Congress Working Committee, Sharma said Congress cannot be selective in fighting communalists but must do so in all its manifestations, irrespective of religion and colour.Â
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"The presence and endorsement of West Bengal PCC President is painful and shameful, he must clarify," he said.
The Indian Secular Front is a barely 40-day-old party floated by Abbas Siddiqui, an influential cleric of the prominent religious shrine Furfura Sharif.
At a rally in Kolkata, the cracks within the Congress-Left-ISF alliance came to the fore Siddique slammed the grand old party over the seat-sharing issue.
Much to the Congress party's chagrin, Siddiqui asked his supporters to vote for Left candidates and ensure their victory but did not mention the Congress.
That's because while the Left offered 30 seats to the ISF, the Congress is yet to decide on how many seats it will offer to a group that has been accused of being fundamentalist in nature.
Siddiqui, though holds significant clout in south Bengal districts, has been a controversial figure. In the past, he has been caught in a controversy over his remarks -- be it stating that actor-turned political Nusrat Jahan earned money by "showing her body" or by stating following the 2020 Delhi riots that Allah should send a virus to India so that crores could die.Â
Meanwhile, responding to Anand Sharma's remarks, state Congress president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury merely said that all decisions with regard to the alliance are taken with the consent of the party's top leadership and not unilaterally.
