Day after Adhir snub, Kharge's posters defaced outside Bengal Cong HQ

A day after he snubbed West Bengal Congress chief Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury for questioning Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee's loyalty to the INDIA bloc, several posters and hoardings of Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge were defaced with ink in front of the party's state headquarters Kolkata on Sunday.

Unidentified persons also wrote 'agent of Trinamool Congress' on Kharge's posters and hoardings.

Sources in the Congress said that Chowdhury, who is in his hometown Baharampur, expressed displeasure over the incident and asked party workers to lodge a police complaint, which was registered, and the defaced posters were also removed.

"The incident might have happened on Saturday night. This is the handiwork of the TMC (Trinamool Congress) which wants to create differences between senior Congress leaders and Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury," a party leader alleged.

Kharge had on Saturday snubbed Chowdhury while responding to a query on Mamata Banerjee's comment that if the INDIA bloc forms the government, she would support it from outside, and Chowdhury's remark that she cannot be trusted and that she might go with the Bharatiya Janata Party.

"Mamata Banerjee is with the alliance. She has recently said that she will join the government. Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury will not take the decision. The decision will be taken by me and the high command and those who don't agree will go out," Kharge had said.

He had also asserted that Chowdhury is no one to decide on whether Banerjee would be part of the INDIA bloc in the event of the anti-BJP alliance coming to power after the Lok Sabha polls.

Chowdhury, while reacting to Kharge's comments, had said, referring to the TMC supremo, "I cannot speak in favour of someone who wants to finish me and our party in Bengal politically. This is a battle for every Congress worker. I have spoken on their behalf. I don't want the state Congress to be used for her (Banerjee's) personal agenda and then finish the organisation."

"If Kharge ji speaks against my views, I will continue to speak for Congressmen at the grassroots in the state," he added.

The TMC is contesting the Lok Sabha elections alone in the state, while the Congress and the Left are jointly fighting the polls.