The Trinamool Congress will contest the elections for Bengal’s 42 Lok Sabha seats on its own and will only consider a pan-India alliance with the Congress after the results are announced, a furious Mamata Banerjee declared Wednesday, highlighting the increasingly bitter divide between two parties widely regarded as key members of the INDIA opposition bloc.
The chief minister of Bengal stated, “I have no relations with the Congress… we will fight alone (and) will decide on an all-India level after the election,” emphasizing that she had not yet discussed seat-sharing deals with any members of that party.
In further signs of fraying tempers, she also hit out at Congress MP Rahul Gandhi and his ‘Bharat Jodo Nay Yatra’, which will enter Bengal Thursday but might skip Kolkata. “They are coming to my state… but did not have courtesy to inform me…”
The Trinamool vs Congress seat-sharing dispute, as well as the wider issue of how the Congress-led INDIA group can most successfully challenge Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his BJP, has raged for weeks with no obvious conclusion. Neither party appears inclined to back down, and the Congress has so far ignored the Trinamool’s deadlines to reach an agreement.
On Tuesday, Ms Banerjee criticized the Congress’ “unjustified” demand for 10-12 Lok Sabha seats in her state; she had offered two, citing the party’s poor performance in the state. The party gained four seats in 2014, but just two in 2019.
A senior Trinamool leader, on condition of anonymity, confirmed this to news agency PTI, saying, “(Ms Banerjee) said we don’t need to think about seat-sharing with the Congress… she said she offered two seats but they were demanding 10-12”.
Trinamool spokesperson Kunal Ghosh last week warned the Congress against “unjustified bargaining in this matter”.
Furthermore, in a show of strength, Ms Banerjee has urged party leaders in Birbhum and Murshidabad districts to start planning for the Lok Sabha election independently. The latter is significant since it includes Congress MP Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury’s district; Mr. Chowdhury, the Congress’ state unit chief, is vehemently opposed to sharing seats with the Trinamool.
Away from Bengal, the Trinamool is likewise dissatisfied with the Congress’ apparent reluctance to play second fiddle to regional parties when necessary. Samajwadi Party head Akhilesh Yadav has previously lambasted the Congress for refusing to share seats in November’s Madhya Pradesh Assembly election, in which the Congress was defeated.
Ms Banerjee said on Monday that the Congress was welcome to compete for 300 seats on its own, but she urged the party to provide seats in specific regions to regional parties that had the best chance of winning and thereby defeating the BJP.
“Particular regions should be left to regional parties. They can fight 300 seats alone… I will help them, I will not contest those seats… but they are adamant about doing what they want,” she said, “I have the power to take on the BJP, but some people don’t want to listen to us about seat-sharing. If you don’t want to fight the BJP, then at least don’t give away seats to it.”
Ms Banerjee is one of the few opposition leaders who have had electoral success against the BJP in recent years, organizing a stunning victory against the saffron party in the last Assembly election. In 2019, she gave her party an advantage by capturing 22 seats. That, however, was less than the 34 recorded five years earlier. Ominously, the BJP went from two to 18.
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