AMN / WEB DES
In a big jolt to the opposition INDIA bloc, chief ministers of West Bengal and Punjab on Wednesday said there will be no alliance with the Congress for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections and that their parties TMC and AAP will go it alone in the respective states.
The surprise announcement by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee that caught the Congress off guard came on the back of the growing tussle between the Trinamul Congress(TMC) and the grand old party over sharing of seats to be contested in the state. It also came just a day ahead of the scheduled entry of the Rahul Gandhi-led Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra into West Bengal.
“I had given them (Congress) a proposal (on seat sharing) but they refused it at the outset. Our party has now decided to go it alone in Bengal,” Banerjee told reporters in Howrah.
“Now, we have decided that there will be no relations with the Congress in Bengal,” the chief minister said in remarks that has dented opposition unity efforts. A total of 28 parties have come together to form the INDIA grouping to take on the BJP in the Lok Sabha elections.
According to sources, the TMC had offered only two seats to the Congress based on its 2019 Lok Sabha polls performance. This was not acceptable to the Congress causing strains between the two parties in West Bengal which accounts for 42 parliamentary seats.
A rattled Congress appeared to underplay the rift with the TMC on the seat-sharing issue in West Bengal, asserting that no one can imagine the existence of the INDIA bloc without Mamata Banerjee and that her party is an “important pillar” of the opposition alliance.
“We cannot imagine the INDIA bloc without Mamata ji. The INDIA bloc will fight the Lok Sabha polls in West Bengal and all (partners) will participate,” Congress General Secretary Jairam Ramesh told a press conference at North Salmara in Assam as part of Rahul Gandhi’s ongoing yatra “Banerjee said that defeating BJP is the priority and prime responsibility of all of us. With this sentiment, our ‘Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra’ will enter West Bengal tomorrow,” Ramesh said when asked about the TMC supremo’s statement on seat-sharing talks.