Hours after the Trinamool Congress announced its candidates for all the 42 Lok Sabha seats in West Bengal, the Congress on Sunday said an alliance with Trinamool is possible until withdrawal of nominations. The party also asserted that any agreement has to be finalised through negotiations and not unilateral announcements.
“Our doors are always open and an alliance can happen anytime before withdrawal,” Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said. The names of the candidates were announced by the West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Sunday.
But West Bengal Congress unit chief Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury lashed out at the Trinamool after the latter fielded cricketer Yusuf Pathan from his [Mr. Chowdhury] Lok Sabha constituency of Berhampore.
Mr. Chowdhury said that Ms. Banerjee is worried about facing the ED and CBI and that is why she sent a message to the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO).
“So, by distancing herself from the INDIA bloc, Mamata Banerjee is sending a message to Mr. Modi’s office: Don’t be upset with me, I am not part of the alliance and I won’t compete with the BJP,” Mr. Chowdhury said, adding that the TMC chief wants him defeated even at the cost of making the BJP win his seat.
In a post on X (formely Twitter), party general secretary Jairam Ramesh also said that the Indian National Congress has repeatedly declared its desire to have a respectable seat-sharing agreement with the Trinamool in West Bengal. “The Indian National Congress has always maintained that such an agreement has to be finalised through negotiations and not by unilateral announcements. The Indian National Congress has always wanted the INDIA group to fight the BJP together,” Mr. Ramesh said.
Mukul Sangma, former Meghalaya Chief Minister who quit Congress to join Trinamool, pointed out that Congress too had named candidates for the two Lok Sabha seats from Meghalaya when his party had asked for the Tura Lok Sabha seat.
“Is it not a fact that they [Congress] have gone ahead and announce their candidates for Meghalaya?” he asked, adding, “I think they need to be reminded of the fact that Congress is probably not grounded with what is on ground zero. There’s a complete delink from the ground reality”.
