Our allies often resorted to pressure tactics: Dasmunsi

The AICC meeting today saw a Union minister speaking strongly against alliances saying that Congress should fight not only BJP but also regional parties.
Deepa Dasmunsi, a known detractor of Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee, raised the issue during discussions at the AICC suggesting that alliances were not working for Congress.
"The experiences in UPA-I and UPA-II are that we have to pay heavily for running the coalition as allies often resorted to emotional blackmail and pressure tactics," she said.
Besides, she said that Congress had to pay for the omissions and commissions of the allies.
Dasmunsi said there have been several states, including Bengal, where the development schemes were being run by the funds of the Congress-led coalition at the Centre but the state governments were taking away all the credit. "They do not even show the pictures of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh or UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi."

She lamented that there was no mechanism within the party to stop such propaganda.

Turning to West Bengal, Dasmunsi alleged that the recent panchayat elections saw the use of money from chit-fund scam.
She said such state governments tried to victimise their detractors through various means, including the use of administrative power.
While BJP was rivalling Congress, the same thing was being done by regional parties through moves like forging a Third Front, she said.