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Mamata should have stayed
in NDA: Junior Panja

Trinamul Congress member of Parliament Ranjit Kumar Panja on Saturday said the Trinamul-Bharatiya Janata Party alliance would have had a smooth sailing in the forthcoming assembly polls in West Bengal if Mamata Banerjee had persisted with the partnership.

Ranjit Panja is the younger brother former Union minister and Trinamul's second-in-command Ajit Kumar Panja.

Describing the decision of the Trinamul chief to pull out of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance at the Centre as "abrupt," the junior Panja said it would now be difficult to attract voters to the new Trinamul-Congress alliance.

''As we had been opposing the Congress all along, it may be difficult for us to convince the ordinary voters, if not the enlightened ones, about the logic of the new alliance,'' he said.

Panja said he had reservations about selection of party candidates too in his Barasat Lok Sabha constituency.

"I had indicated my preferences, based on the prospects of each nominee. But in most seats those ranked lower in the order have been given tickets."

Panja, however, scotched speculation about his joining the BJP, saying "such theories have no substance."

Panja, a noted dermatologist, who has been elected twice from the North 24 Parganas constituency, said: "I am not an out and out a politician. If I have ideological differences with my party, I have the option of quitting politics.''

PTI

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