New Delhi: The jubilation within the INDIA bloc over breakthroughs in seat-sharing agreements may be short-lived, as the Trinamool Congress has reiterated its intention to contest all 42 Lok Sabha seats in West Bengal. The party’s rejection of the Congress comes after a sudden reversal within 24 hours, with alliance sources suggesting on Thursday that seat-sharing negotiations were back on track, only for Trinamool sources to state earlier on Friday that finding a third seat for the Congress was impossible, “even with binoculars.”
Derek O’Brien, Trinamool’s leader in the Rajya Sabha, stated, “A few weeks ago, TMC chairperson and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee declared that the Trinamool Congress would contest all 42 seats in Bengal. We are also contesting in a few seats in Assam and the Tura Lok Sabha seat in Meghalaya. This stance remains unchanged.”
This firm statement represents a setback for both the INDIA alliance and the Congress. The Congress, having finalized a seat-sharing agreement with the Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh and reportedly reached understandings with the AAP for Delhi, Gujarat, Goa, and Haryana in recent days, would have found a pact in West Bengal to be a significant morale boost for the opposition bloc, especially considering the state’s status as the third-largest contributor of MPs to the Lok Sabha. Derek O’Brien’s statement on Friday echoed Mamata Banerjee’s earlier assertions that only her party could effectively challenge the BJP in West Bengal and, therefore, would contest alone in the state. “I told Congress… ‘You don’t have a single MLA here, I am offering two MP seats and we will ensure you win those.’ They refused. So I said, ‘Now I won’t give a single seat’,” Ms. Banerjee had remarked.
Indications on Thursday suggested that the Congress had reduced its demand for seats in West Bengal to five and was hoping for success in negotiations with the Trinamool Congress after its recent deals with the Samajwadi Party and the AAP. To sweeten the potential deal, the Congress reportedly offered two seats to the Trinamool in Assam and one in Meghalaya. Congress sources had expressed optimism about the direction of the talks.
However, by Friday morning, it became apparent from the Trinamool camp that the party was unwilling to deviate from its initial offer of two seats to the Congress – the same number won by the party in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. “Even with binoculars, we are unable to find a third seat for the Congress,” a Trinamool spokesperson remarked.
