“Mamata Banerjee will take the final call,” he told PTI | (Photo: PTI)
The TMC on Saturday said its supremo Mamata Banerjee will take the final call on seat-sharing with the Congress in West Bengal for the Lok Sabha polls this year and asserted that “unwarranted negotiations” cannot be done by the state unit of the big old lot.
Based on the results of the 2021 assembly elections in the state, in which the Congress in alliance with the CPI(M)-led Left Front had fared poorly, the Trinamool Congress top leadership offered the grand old party two seats, from 42 Lok Sabha constituencies. in West Bengal, in the upcoming general elections, spokesperson Kunal Ghosh said.
“The Congress state unit cannot engage in unwarranted negotiations on this issue,” Ghosh said.
Meanwhile, in Siliguri, All India Mahila Congress president Alka Lamba said the party leadership has held talks with INDIA block voters in several states, including West Bengal, on seat-sharing for the Lok Sabha elections.
She said the process will be completed soon.
“Seat-sharing negotiations are underway in several states, including West Bengal,” she told reporters.
Ghosh also said that West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is in “communication with INDIA bloc leaders and nothing has been finalized yet.
“Mamata Banerjee will take the final call,” he told PTI.
The CPI(M)-led Left Front, Congress and TMC are part of the opposition INDIA bloc.
Banerjee, during a closed-door meeting with party leaders in Murshidabad district on Friday, had asserted that the TMC is ready to independently contest all 42 Lok Sabha seats in the state if sufficient importance is not given to it in the INDIA bloc.
The state leadership of the Congress, which has been given two seats by the TMC, is demanding some more constituencies.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Congress had won only two seats out of 42 constituencies.
The CPI(M) in West Bengal has claimed that its fight was against both the TMC and the BJP in the state. The Congress and the Left could not open their accounts in the 2021 state assembly elections.
Meanwhile, Lamba accused the BJP of “playing politics” on the Ram Temple issue and alleged that its construction was not yet completed.
“Despite this, the temple is being inaugurated because he wants to gain political influence,” the Congress leader said.
Lamba is in Siliguri in connection with the Congress leader Rahul Gandhi-led ‘Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra’, which will soon enter North Bengal from Assam.
She said anyone can join the march through a missed call to a centralized cellphone number.
(Only the headline and image of this report may have been reworked by Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is automatically generated from a syndicated feed.)
First print: January 20, 2024 | 6:58 PM IST