The possibility of a seat-sharing pact between the Congress and the Trinamool Congress (TMC) in West Bengal receded further on Thursday with the TMC signalling it would not meet the five-member national alliance committee of the Congress that has been holding talks with parties of the INDIA alliance to work out seat adjustments in states. Sources in the TMC said the party had already conveyed its offer to the Congress.
The Congress panel — comprising Ashok GehlotBhupesh Baghel, Mukul Wasnik, Salman Khurshid, and Mohan Prakash — has held one round of discussions with parties such as the Samajwadi Party (SP), Shiv Sena (UBT), NCP, AAP, and RJD. The TMC, sources said, had offered Malda Dakshin and Baharampur to the Congress. The Congress holds both seats at the moment.
West Bengal Congress president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury has already rejected the offer saying the party had won those seats on its own in 2019 fighting against the TMC and the BJPand that the Congress does not need any “grace or generosity” from Mamata to win those two seats.
“I can fight it alone against Banerjee and the BJP because I have proved it. My colleague and I can fight in both the seats on our own. We don’t require any grace from Banerjee to retain the two seats,” Chowdhury told The Indian Express earlier this week. That the TMC is not willing to meet the Congress panel to discuss its offer signals that the party is in no mood to concede more seats to the grand old party.
“We have offered them two seats. The Congress got over 30% votes in only two of the 42 seats in Bengal. How can they claim more seats? If the top Congress leadership speaks to Mamata Banerjee directly, maybe she will concede one more seat. So there is no point in meeting the Congress alliance committee. Our offer is very clear,” a senior TMC leader told The Indian Express.
The Congress is staking claim for many more seats, including Raiganj, Malda Uttar, Jangipur and Murshidabad. But with the TMC refusing to come to the negotiating table, the possibility of a pact between the two parties looks bleak. Sources said the Congress alliance committee had contacted the TMC for a meeting but the TMC conveyed that it was not keen on sending any representative for talks.
The Left has already signalled it will not ally with the TMC.
The national alliance committee is likely to have its second meeting with leaders of the AAP and Samajwadi Party (SP) on Friday and also meet with the Janata Party (United). The first meeting between the Congress and the AAP saw the latter putting on the table its demand for seats in Gujarat, Goaand Haryana besides Punjab and Delhi. The committee members told the AAP delegation — comprising Atishi, Sandeep Pathak and Saurabh Bhardwaj — that its mandate was confined to discussing a pact for Delhi.
In Delhi, the AAP is keen to contest four of the seven seats. While it is in favour of an alliance in Punjab, the Congress’s state unit was bitterly opposed to any tie-up with the AAP. Interestingly, the TMC is also keen to contest seats outside West Bengal. The party wants to field candidates in one seat in Meghalaya and at least two in Assam.
Meanwhile, complicating the seat-sharing talks in Bihar, the CPI(M-L) Liberation said it wants to contest five seats and has conveyed its view to senior RJD leader and Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav. The CPI(M-L) Liberation’s argument is that it had a better strike rate than all the other parties in the last Assembly elections. It won 12 of the 19 seats it contested as part of the RJD-led grand alliance. The Congress, which contested 70 seats, won only 19.
