Pranab snubs Cong rebels; Adhir defiant

A day before Congress president Sonia Gandhi's visit for poll campaigning, senior party leader Pranab Mukherjee on Tuesday snubbed party rebels contesting as Independents saying dissenters would not matter in the assembly elections.

"People have united and grown to dislike policies of the Left Front in the last 34 years and have gone against them. People have now sided with the Congress-Trinamool alliance. There will be election in 294 seats and even if Independents win three or four it will not be a determining factor," Mukherjee told a rally at Farakka in Murshidabad district.

Referring to the 2009 Lok Sabha results which saw the Trinamool Congress and Congress winning 26 out of 42 seats in the state, he said it proved that that Left Front was not invincible and could be defeated.

Despite Mukherjee's snub, party MP and Murshidabad district Congress president Adhir Chowdhury continued to campaign for Independents.

Apparently dismissive about Pradesh Congress Committee chief Manas Bhuniya's comment on Monday that stringent action would be taken against rebels, Chowdhury at another meeting stood by his stand to campaign for rebels.

"Today I campaigned for Aminul Islam (a Congress rebel contesting against Trinamool nominee at Sagardighi). He is a Congress candidate," he contended.

"Tomorrow Sonia Gandhi will be coming to Bharatpur in Murshidabad to address an election where Pranab Mukherjee and I will be present. Who will punish whom?"

Chowdhury's defiance follows his consistent stand that he would not abide by the seat sharing pact between the two parties.

Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee had allotted 65 assembly seats to the Congress out of the total 294. The Murshidabad party strongman is backing four Independents against Trinamool nominees in the district that has 22 constituencies.

The Trinamool has left 18 of the 22 constituencies for Congress in the district, known as a Congress stronghold.

Chowdhury had earlier said that the party high command could cancel his parliament membership if it chose to do so, but he would not change his decision.