Kolkata, May 24, 2023, IANS

Kolkata, May 24 (IANS) Senior Congress leader and Lok Sabha member Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury on Wednesday made a controversial remark against Prime Minister Narendra Modi while slamming the Centre's decision to phase out Rs 2000 currency note.

"All of a sudden the fresh decision to phase out Rs 2,000- denomination notes was announced. He is not Modi. He is 'Pagla (Mad)' Modi. People are addressing him as 'Pagla Modi'," Chowdhury told a section of the media persons.

He also took a dig at West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and AAP's Delhi and Punjab CM's Arvind Kerjriwal and Bhagwant Mann for the meeting at the state secretariat of West Bengal on Tuesday.

"Both AAP and Trinamool Congress are actually trying to finish Congress. Both the parties have an understanding with the BJP. Both Arvind Kejriwal and Mamata Banerjee are involved in competitive communalism against BJP. Even in Karnataka, AAP had divided the opposition vote bank in certain seats. Otherwise the Congress could have ended with a higher tally," Chowdhury said.

He said that the Karnataka results prove that with no opposition alliance minus Congress will be able to take on BJP and Narendra Modi in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.

Meanwhile, the leader of the opposition in West Bengal Assembly Suvendu Adhikari questioned the justification of the meeting between the chief ministers of West Bengal, Delhi and Punjab at the state secretariat of Nabanna.

According to him, since the meeting was done on political issues it should not have taken place at the secretariat and that too in presence of the state chief secretary H.K. Dwivedi.

Adhikari has also issued a Twitter message on this count. "If it was a meeting between the CMs: - # what was the Order of Business? # was any Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed between the WB Got & the Delhi Got? Such as:-a) The Delhi Got is going to help the WB Got in adapting their Liquor Policy? Or b) The WB Education Dept. will train the Education Dept. of Delhi, how to conduct Teacher Recruitment process fairly & honestly?"

Trinamool Congress' state spokesman, Kunal Ghosh issued a counter Twitter message where he questioned the meeting of Adhikari at the office of the Union Home Minister, Amit Shah. "The Union home government offices are used for hatching anti-Bengal conspiracies," Ghosh claimed.