AICC general secretary Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday asked party activists to strengthen the party in West Bengal so that it could be a deciding factor in the forthcoming elections and said he wanted an alliance with the Trinamool Congress on honourable terms.
"You have to strengthen Congress so that it can be a determining factor in the assembly elections in the state scheduled next year," he said.
"We can extend our hand to Trinamool Congress, but we cannot bow our head. (Hum hath bara sakte hai, lekin shir jhuka nehi sakte)," Mr Gandhi was quoted by a Youth Congress leader who was present at the closed-door meeting, as having said.
Addressing the Youth Congress workers in this North Bengal town on the second day of his three-day visit in West Bengal, he asked them to strengthen the party for an all-out fight against the CPI-M.
He also assured the activists to make Congress a movement-oriented party in the state and look into the problems of tribals in the area. The AICC general secretary said the Congress was serious about forging an alliance with the Trinamool Congress before the coming Assembly elections.
"Change is a must and the change is coming after the assembly elections," Mr Gandhi told the gathering. Asked by YC workers about many disgruntled Congress leaders joining the Trinamool Congress of late, Mr Gandhi replied curtly, "Let them join."
Repeating the charges he had made earlier during his last visit to the state on September 5, Mr Gandhi said that there existed two Bengals. One for the CPI-M in which the cadres could do anything they want and another for the poor where there was no food and shelter.
Earlier in an interaction with tribals in a sprawling ground in the Jalpaiguri town, he asked those gathered to narrate their problems. Mr Gandhi was told that the adivasis had not been included in the BPL list nor had they been provided with tribal certificates to define their status.
When he was told that the daily wage workers were not getting the Rs 100 per day's work under the Nehru Rojgar Yogana scheme, Mr Gandhi asked his secretary to contact the Jalpaiguri district magistrate to know the actual picture.
The district magistrate was quoted by the secretary as saying that there were no funds available. When the rural development secretary in the state secretariat in Kolkata was contacted, he allegedly told Mr Gandhi's secretary as saying that the government was not interested in the scheme.