Cong, CPI(M) betraying grassroots workers by joining hands with TMC in Patna: BJP

He also claimed that both the Congress and CPIM state leaderships stand exposed to the people of West Bengal. How will they raise their voice against the Trinamool Congress politics of murder, attack and intimidation when the people will see the footage of top Congress and CPIM leaders sitting with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee

The BJP on Friday lashed out at the Congress and the CPI(M) for allegedly “betraying” their grassroots workers engaged in a bitter fight over rural polls in West Bengal by joining hands with the TMC in Patna.

The saffron camp also termed the meeting of opposition parties in Bihar's capital as an “opportunistic alliance”.

''West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee chief Adhir Chowdhury and CPI(M) central committee member Sujan Chakraborty will have no right to rush to the aid of their grassroots workers if they are attacked by TMC goons in the run-up to the July 8 panchayat polls,'' BJP state spokesperson Samik Bhattacharya told PTI. He also claimed that both the Congress and CPI(M) state leaderships stand ''exposed to the people of West Bengal''. ''How will they raise their voice against the Trinamool Congress' politics of murder, attack and intimidation when the people will see the footage of top Congress and CPI(M) leaders sitting with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee? How can they console the family members of those killed by TMC goons,'' the former BJP MLA asked.

During the day, as many as 17 opposition parties resolved to fight the 2024 Lok Sabha elections unitedly to defeat the BJP and work with flexibility by setting aside their differences and will meet in Shimla next month to chalk out a joint strategy.

As many as 32 leaders of these parties, including Congress' Rahul Gandhi and its president Mallikarjun Kharge, TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee, CPI (M)'s Sitaram Yechury, participated in the meeting at the Bihar chief minister's 1, Aney Marg, residence here.

The meeting is viewed as a starting point for ''opposition unity'' ahead of Lok Sabha polls to unitedly take on the BJP.

Bhattacharya said, ''The people of Bengal have turned their face from the TMC, Congress and the Left parties and will gravitate towards the BJP as they are seeing the hypocrisy and contradiction in the stance of all these parties.'' Countering the BJP, TMC state spokesperson Joy Prakash Majumdar said, ''During the Patna meeting, the opposition parties justified our leader Mamata Banerjee's repeated calls to defeat the communal BJP everywhere.'' The idea of hosting a meeting of opposition leaders in Patna was floated by Banerjee, who had invoked the memory of Jayaprakash Narayan upon meeting JD(U) supremo and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar in Kolkata in April.

The TMC supremo had said her party would support the Congress where it is strong in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections but had asserted that she would expect a seat-sharing formula to give priority to regional players in areas where they were strong.

''Going by that formula, the TMC will have its candidates in the most number of seats in West Bengal in the next general elections, barring a few Lok Sabha constituencies like Berhampore where the Congress is strong,'' Majumdar added.