While Banerjee’s declaration came hours after Congress leader Rahul Gandhi dismissed reports of tension in the INDIA alliance in Bengal and also state Congress chief Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury’s accusations that the TMC supremo is an opportunist, Bhagwant Mann said that Punjab will create history by giving all 13 seats to AAP in 2024.
“There will be no alliance with the Congress in the state,” said Mann, after presiding over a meeting of the Council of Ministers.
On Tuesday Gandhi had said: “My party and I are very close to Mamata ji. Talks are going on smoothly and there will be an outcome soon. These comments are routine. Sometimes their leaders say something, sometimes ours do that”.
Mamata, known for her mercurial temperament, was obviously not impressed. On Wednesday morning, she said she had no idea that Rahul’s Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra was going to pass through Bengal. She said her party would contest alone in Bengal and defeat the BJP.
“I had no discussions with the Congress party. I have always said that in Bengal, we will fight alone. I am not concerned about what will be done in the country but we are a secular party and in Bengal, we will alone defeat the BJP. I am a part of the INDIA alliance. Rahul Gandhi’s Nyay Yatra is passing through our state but we have not been informed about it,” she said.
Mamata is not willing to cede more than two of the state’s 42 Lok Sabha seats in West Bengal to the Congress though the Congress is asking for six.
The TMC is also not willing to work with the CPM, with Mamata declaring that her 34-year-old politics has been anti-Left.
In fact, Mamata had quit the Congress to form the TMC precisely to protest against the Congress diffidence in respect to the then ruling Left which was targeting Congress workers.
Mamata said her proposal to the Congress to contest 300 Lok Sabha seats out of 543 and leave the rest to regional parties was not accepted.
We have had no seat-sharing talks with the Congress and will fight alone,” she said, adding that the regional parties were together in the INDIA bloc.
Mamata’s snub to the Congress could further weaken the grand old party’s bargaining hold in other states like Punjab and Delhi where the Congress and AAP are engaged in hectic seat-sharing negotiations as part of the INDIA alliance.
Mamata feels the Congress needs to accord due importance to regional players in seat-sharing discussions if defeating the BJP is the goal.
The TMC itself needs to consolidate in Bengal where the BJP came uncomfortably close to it in 2019 winning 18 seats as against TMC’s 22 and Congress’s two.
The Congress on Wednesday said no one can imagine the existence of the opposition INDIA bloc without West Bengal Chief Minister and TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee.
The Congress statement comes immediately after Banerjee announced that her party Trinamool Congress has decided to go alone in the state in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.
Addressing a press conference at North Salmara in Assam as part of the party’s ‘Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra’, Congress General Secretary Jairam Ramesh said that the Trinamool Congress is an “important pillar” of the opposition alliance.
“We cannot imagine the INDIA alliance without Mamata ji. The INDIA bloc will fight the Lok Sabha polls in West Bengal and all (partners) will participate,” he said.
“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 regarding the seat-sharing talks.
The TMC supremo had on Tuesday criticised the Congress for causing a delay in discussions for seat-sharing in West Bengal, citing “unjustified” demand for 10-12 Lok Sabha constituencies when her party was willing to share only two.
Ramesh said, “Mamata Banerjee’s full statement was that we want to defeat BJP and will take all possible steps for it. During a long journey, we get speed breakers and red lights. It does not mean that we will push back the journey. The journey crosses the speed breaker and the red light turns green.” Citing Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, he asserted that the TMC and especially Banerjee, who is a leader of West Bengal and India, are “very important pillars of the INDIA alliance”.
Ramesh also claimed that seat-sharing talks are “going on” with the TMC for West Bengal” and a solution to the stalemate will be found soon.
“We hope that the talks, which are going on, will find some middle path and the INDIA alliance will fight Lok Sabha polls in West Bengal and all partners will cooperate,” he added.
Banerjee, however, asserted that she has not spoken to anyone in the Congress on the seat-sharing issue.
Talking about Banerjee’s statement that she was not invited to participate in the ‘Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra’ when it will enter West Bengal, Ramesh said Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge, Rahul Gandhi and the party’s West Bengal in-charge have spoken to her.
“I know that Kharge ji has mentioned 3-4 times in his speech that all INDIA partners are invited to join the Yatra and invitations were sent to all parties. I don’t know in what reference she said like this,” he added.
The Punjab Chief Minister’s statement came after a meeting of the top leaders in Delhi on Saturday, wherein Mann had told the party high command that it would be politically disastrous for the party to go in for an alliance with Punjab’s main opposition party, Congress.
When questioned about the alliance of the AAP and Congress in Chandigarh for the mayoral polls, Mann was quick to reply that the AAP would contest all 13 Lok Sabha seats plus the Chandigarh seat independently. “Our voters will judge us on our good performance and we will create history by winning all seats on our own,” he said.
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