Kolkata: Weakened and bruised by the migration of its leaders and workers to Mamata Banerjee's TMC, the Congress is fighting a battle for its political existence in West Bengal.
None other than Pradip Bhattacharya, who was very recently replaced as the Bengal Congress chief, said, “It is a fight to prove our political existence in Bengal and to prove that the 129-year-old party will not turn into a ‘signboard' as is being claimed by the TMC.”
This election will also prove a litmus test for the Congress whether its ability to bite into the anti-Left vote pie still holds true, Bhattacharya thinks.
“This Lok Sabha election will prove that without the Congress, the Trinamool Congress too won't be able to make any mark against the Left as it is the combined vote share of the two parties that catapulted Mamata Banerjee to power,” Bhattacharya, MP, pointed out.
The Congress lost its pre-eminent position on the Bengal stage after it was humbled in the 1977 Assembly poll by the Left Front. People became disenchanted with the party which was riven by dissension and squabbling.
