West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee attended the G20 dinner hosted by President Droupadi Murmu causing a new tear in the Opposition bloc INDIA. Senior Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury questioned the need for Banerjee’s presence at the dinner, asking if that would not weaken her stance against the Narendra Modi government.
Banerjee, along with Bihar's Nitish Kumar and Jharkhand's Hemant Soren were among chief ministers from the Opposition seen at the dinner hosted for the delegates. Notably, Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge was not invited to the dinner.
Chowdhury, who is the state president of Congress in Bengal, wondered whether there was “any other reason” for the Trinamool Congress supremo to take part in the programme.
"When many non-BJP CMs refrained from attending the dinner, Didi (Mamata Banerjee) went to Delhi a day in advance. She attended the occasion with Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath in the same room. I wonder what prompted her to rush all the way to Delhi to be in the dinner party along with these leaders," Chowdhury told reporters in Kolkata.
"Nothing would have happened if she didn’t attend the dinner. The sky would not fall. Mahabharata would not have become impure. The Kuran would not have been impure," Chowdhury said.
TMC hit back saying that Banerjee is one of the chief architects behind the Opposition bloc INDIA and did not need a lecture from the Congress leader about protocols to be followed.
"Chowdhury will not decide when the chief minister of the state will go to attend a dinner on the occasion of G20 as part of the protocol," TMC Rajya Sabha MP Santanu Sen said.
BJP’s West Bengal spokesperson Samik Bhattacharya also hit out at Congress over the issue accusing the party of joining hands with the Banerjee-led party in Delhi, betraying the people of the state who were “victims of the TMC’s terror”.
"So, people like Adhir Chowdhury should explain who is actually cosying up to TMC and doing a disservice to the people of the state," Bhattacharya said.
