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'Don't care': Adhir Chowdhury on Trinamool's new plan to contest all 42 seats in Bengal
Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said he does not care even if Trinamool contests from his seat despite being part of INDIA bloc.
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Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury on Saturday said he does not care about Trinamool's new plan to contest all 42 seats in West Bengal in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. All seats include Adhir Chowdhury's Baharampur too -- though Trinamool is a key member of the opposition INDIA bloc led by the Congress. Adhir Chowdhury has been winning the seat since 1999. "I don't care. Our leaders have spoken on the issue. I have reached here fighting and winning elections. I know how to fight and how to win," Adhir said.
At a closed-door meeting of Trinamool's Murshidabad district unit, party chief and West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee said TMC should win all three Lok Sabha seats in the district -- Jangipur, Murshidabad and Baharampur. The Trinamool won the first two in the 2019 election, so Mamata's order to her party leaders was a direct challenge to Adhir.
Mamata said the party is ready to independently contest all 42 Lok Sabha seats in the state if her party is not given due importance in the alliance talks.
Seat-sharing talks in West Bengal were supposed to hit a hurdle as Adhir Chowdhury is a staunch critic of Mamata Banerjee. Earlier, Adhir said Congress won't beg for seats from Trinamool to which Mamata responded by saying that seat-sharing and bad-mouthing alliance partners can't go hand in hand.
In 2019, the TMC secured 22 seats, Congress won two, and BJP bagged 18 seats in West Bengal. Adhir won the Baharampur seat and Abu Hasem Khan Choudhury, a former Union minister, won Malda Dakshin seat.
Seat-sharing hurdle in Punjab
INDIA bloc is facing uncertainty in Punjab as any pact between AAP and the Congress seems unlikely.
Seat-sharing hurdle in Maharashtra
The seat-sharing talks between Uddhav Thackeray's Shiv Sena and the Congress cost Congress Milind Deora, a veteran and a former Union minister, who quit the Congress as the Congress hinted that the Mumbai South Lok Sabha constituency would go to Uddhav's party.
