New Delhi: The Trinamool Congress, which has offered the Congress two Lok Sabha seats for an alliance in West Bengal, has refused further negotiations with the latter’s national alliance committee but kept the doors open for talks between the top leadership of the two parties, people aware of the matter said on Thursday.
Both the seats offered by the TMC are currently held by the Congress, making it difficult for the party to accept the deal, said a member of the Congress’s alliance panel. The TMC has also asked for a seat in Meghalaya, arguing that it bagged 13.8% vote share in the last assembly polls, marginally higher than the Congress, they added.
The national alliance committee led by Congress veteran Mukul Wasnik has so far met Janata Dal (United), Rashtriya Janata Dal, Aam Aadmi Party, Shiv Sena (Uddhav), Nationalist Congress Party, and Samajwadi Party for seat talks.
Read | ‘Kharge? I don’t even know his name': JD(U) MLA's barb at INDIA ally Congress chief
“Backed by data and the ground reality in Bengal, the TMC’s offer for two seats was communicated to the Congress three weeks ago. Therefore, at this stage, any other meeting with a committee will serve no purpose,” said a senior TMC lawmaker, who is involved in the party’s strategy.
{{/usCountry}}“Backed by data and the ground reality in Bengal, the TMC’s offer for two seats was communicated to the Congress three weeks ago. Therefore, at this stage, any other meeting with a committee will serve no purpose,” said a senior TMC lawmaker, who is involved in the party’s strategy.
{{/usCountry}}The TMC leadership has also conveyed that the Congress should acknowledge they are “very weak” in Bengal.
“In 39 of the 42 seats, the Congress got less than 4% votes. It won two seats and in another seat it got less than 10% votes in 2019,” said the leader. In the last Lok Sabha elections, the TMC got 22 MPs while the BJP bagged 18 seats.
“The TMC has already conveyed our view to the top Congress leadership. It’s the same. We are committed to the INDIA bloc, and pledge to work together to defeat the BJP. We sincerely wish the Congress leadership acknowledge the limitations and weaknesses of the Bengal unit and allow us to lead the fight in the state,” said a second senior TMC leader, requesting anonymity.
Also Read | Seat-sharing process: SP may declare first list of candidates on Makar Sankranti
But a TMC Rajya Sabha leader also said on Thursday that “talks can always happened between the top leaders of a party. If someone like Sonia Gandhi calls Banerjee, she will definitely respond.”
Banerjee had a discussion on seats sharing on the sidelines of the INDIA bloc meeting in New Delhi on December 19 with Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and former party chief Rahul Gandhi. In that meeting, Banerjee had offered the two seats which the Congress currently holds in Bengal—Maldah Dakshin and Baharampur.
Two Congress leaders said that the TMC’s offer in Bengal is difficult to accept as the party won those two seats fighting against both the TMC and the BJP. “During our internal meeting with the Bengal leaders, they expressed reservation for an alliance with TMC citing several factors including the atrocities against our workers. In this context, the current offer from TMC will not be accepted.”
in Kolkata last week, Bengal unit chief Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury echoed this sentiment. “They (Trinamool) are saying they will give us two seats which already belong to the Congress. Are they doing us a favour? Mamata Banerjee wants the Congress to win more seats. It is not the other way round.”