"First Self Respect Then Alliance".....Junior Gandhi

Rahul Gandhi today asked state Congress leaders not to sacrifice their self-respect for the sake of alliance.

“Gatbandhan kar ke CPM ko Bengal mein kabu karna parega, lekin Congress ki izzat kho kar nahin (the CPM must be defeated through the alliance, but not at the cost of the Congress’s self-respect),” a Bengal Congress leader quoted Rahul as saying during an interaction with state unit leaders at Bidhan Bhavan, the party headquarters off CIT Road.

After addressing the public rally at the Shahid Minar grounds, Rahul drove to the state Congress office and held an hour’s meeting with the Bengal unit’s executive committee members.

Pranab Mukherjee, the Union finance minister; K. Keshava Rao, the Congress general secretary in charge of Bengal affairs; and state Congress president Manas Bhuniya were present at the meeting.

Rahul, who addressed the meeting for 15 minutes, said the party’s “self-respect is non-negotiable”.

He instructed party leaders to rev up the organisation at the grassroots ahead of next year’s Assembly elections.

“There is no denying that Trinamul has a better organisation at the grassroots than the Congress. For this, you will have to go to the people,” Rahul is learnt to have said.

Some Congress leaders, such as Raiganj MP Deepa Das Munshi, Behrampore MP Adhir Chowdhury and Hooghly leader Abdul Mannan, had spoken out against “sacrificing our self-respect” when the party leadership accepted Mamata Banerjee’s offer of only 14 of Bengal’s 42 seats during last year’s Lok Sabha polls.

“It’s good that Rahulji today made it clear that there won’t be any alliance at the cost of self-respect. Now the leadership must not meekly surrender to Mamata while discussing the seat shares for the Assembly polls,” a Congress MP said.

He recalled how the Congress had, at Mamata’s instructions, denied tickets to eight sitting legislators during the 2001 Assembly polls. “We must not repeat that mistake this time,” the MP said.

Rao echoed the MP. “The alliance did not work out during the civic polls (in May) because of Mamataji’s refusal to part with the number of seats we had asked for. The Congress will not do anything at the cost of its self-respect (during the Assembly elections),” he said.


Trinamul state president Subrata Bakshi evaded questions on Rahul’s remarks. “We too want an alliance with the Congress. The details of the alliance would be worked out only before the Assembly polls,” he said.

However, at the rally, Pranab Mukherjee underplayed the importance of coalition politics.

“I don’t believe in the theory that the days of one-party rule in India are over and coalition politics is here to stay instead. With my vast experience as a Congressman, I think the Congress can again rule India provided it regains strength in Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Bihar and Bengal,” he said.

“Around 40 per cent of the 543 Lok Sabha seats come from these four states. The party that has good numbers from these states will be running the country. So, increasing the Congress’s strength here will be crucial.”

Mukherjee recalled how the Congress had ruled India on its own for several decades. “I am optimistic that the Congress, under the leadership of Rahul, will be rejuvenated so that it can once again be at the helm,” he said.

Mukherjee and Mamata took the same flight to Delhi in the evening.