Kolkata: Trinamool Congress supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday said that her party would contest the Lok Sabha elections alone in the State since Congress leadership rejected all her proposals in the INDIA bloc.
Seat sharing
On Tuesday, Banerjee at an internal party meeting had criticised the Congress for causing delays in seat-sharing discussions in West Bengal within the INDIA bloc, citing unjustified demands for 10-12 seats when the TMC is willing to share only two. The TMC's offer of two seats based on Congress's 2019 Lok Sabha election performance was deemed insufficient, escalating the tension between the two parties.
In the 2019 elections, TMC secured 22 seats, Congress won two, and the BJP secured 18 seats in the state. The TMC had allied with the Congress in the 2001 assembly polls, 2009 Lok Sabha elections, and the 2011 assembly polls. The alliance ousted the CPI(M)-led Left Front government of 34 years in the 2011 polls.
The Chief Minister said that she gave a proposal to Congress to contest from 300 seats while leaving the rest for the other regional parties. “Now we the regional parties will take further decisions only after the Lok Sabha polls are over. The regional parties will remain united,” she said.
The Chief Minister had hinted at an administration review meeting of the party on January 19 that she was ready to field candidates from all the 42 Lok Sabha constituencies in the state if not taken seriously by INDIA bloc. At a public meeting on January 22, she accused Congress of allowing the CPM to control the agenda of the INDIA bloc meetings.
Yatra gone wrong
Speaking to the media persons before attending an administrative review meeting at Burdwan, the Chief Minister also launched a scathing attack against Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for allegedly not informing her about his schedule of Nyay Yatra in West Bengal.
“For the sake of alliance, I could have been informed about the schedule of Nyay Yatra in West Bengal. But I was informed nothing,” the chief minister said. Senior state Congress leader Pradip Bhattacharya however, said the party has sent invites to all INDIA bloc partners.
The Yatra, currently in Assam, is scheduled to enter West Bengal through Bakshirhat in Cooch Behar district on January 25. After a recess of two days January 26-27, it will be traversing Jalpaiguri, Alipurduar, Uttar Dinajpur and Darjeeling before reaching Bihar on January 29. It will re-enter West Bengal on January 31 through Malda and travel via Murshidabad, both strongholds of the Congress, before leaving the state on February 1.
In the meantime, the state Congress president in West Bengal and five-time Lok Sabha member Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury too had continued with his salvos against the Chief Minister. Chowdhury even went to the extent of challenging Mamata Banerjee to contest against him in the coming Lok Sabha polls.
The CPM politburo member and the party’s state secretary in West Bengal Md Salim has been invited to participate in the Nyay Yatra rally when it passes through West Bengal.
(With IANS, PTI inputs.)
