Barely hours before Congress scion Rahul Gandhi was to enter West Bengal for the next leg of his Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra, his I.N.D.I.A. bloc colleague and Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee publicly dismissed any chance of a seat-sharing deal between the two parties and declared that her party would contest all 42 Lok Sabha seats in the State.
“I have had no discussions with the Congress. I have always said that in Bengal, we will fight alone. I gave them (the Congress) many proposals… but they rejected them. I am not concerned about what will be done in the (rest of the) country… but we are a secular party and, in Bengal, we alone will defeat the BJP,” Mamata Banerjee said, adding that she would only consider a pan-India alliance with the Congress after results are declared.
Banerjee’s words deliver what appears to be a final blow to hopes for the two parties – seen as important members of the I.N.D.I.A. Opposition bloc – will reach any agreement.
The Trinamool vs Congress squabble over seat-sharing, and the larger picture of how the Congress-led I.N.D.I.A. bloc might most effectively defeat Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his BJP, has rumbled on for weeks with no apparent resolution.
While Mamata Banerjee had been privately telling her party colleagues to get ready to contest all 42 Lok Sabha seats in West Bengal, today was the first day that she said so in public.
Yesterday, in Assam, Rahul Gandhi had said that he and his party enjoyed good relations with Mamata Banerjee and had downplayed the war of words between his party colleagues like Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury and Trinamool leaders.
Rahul Gandhi, asked about these attacks, played them down, insisting: “Mamata Banerjee is very close to me and our party” and that it is “natural”, sometimes, for the two sides to criticise each other.
“But they are not going to disrupt the relations between the Congress and the TMC,” he had insisted.
However, in a further sign of fraying tempers, Mamata Banerjee today also hit out at Rahul Gandhi and his Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra, which is expected to enter Bengal on Thursday.
“They are coming to my State… but did not have courtesy to inform me, even though I am part of the I.N.D.I.A. bloc. So, there is no relations with me, as far as Bengal is concerned,” she said.
“I.N.D.I.A. will be present in India (but) in Bengal, the Trinamool Congress will fight. In Bengal, it is only Trinamool that can teach the BJP a lesson. It can show the country the path to victory…” she said.
Minutes later, the Congress responded through its communications head Jairam Ramesh.
Ramesh, who is with Rahul Gandhi and the yatra in Assam, said his party “cannot imagine INDIA bloc without Mamataji”. Mr Ramesh insisted “all I.N.D.I.A. partners will unitedly fight Lok Sabha polls in Bengal”.
Congress General Secretary KC Venugopal said the party would “talk to the Trinamool”.
“There will be an alliance in West Bengal. Our aim is to decrease BJP seats. (We) will talk to Trinamool… Mamata Banerjee is a senior leader in the I.N.D.I.A. alliance. These are small differences (that) will be sorted out.”
However, Trinamool sources later told The Daily Guardian that the party was open to “courtesy back-channel” talks but there is almost no hope of a deal being struck.
Banerjee also said the Congress was welcome to fight 300 seats on its own, but urged the party to surrender some seats to regional parties that will have the best chance of defeating the BJP.
“Particular regions should be left to regional parties. They can fight 300 seats alone… I will help them, I will not contest those seats… but they are adamant about doing what they want,” she said.
“I have the power to take on the BJP, but some people don’t want to listen to us about seat-sharing. If you don’t want to fight the BJP, then at least don’t give away seats to it,” the Trinamool leader said.
Predictably, Mamata Banerjee’s announcement drew a scathing response from the BJP’s Amit Malviya, who called it a “sign of desperation”. “Unable to hold her political ground, Mamata Banerjee wants to fight all seats, in the hope that she can still be relevant, after the polls…” the BJP’s IT Cell chief posted on X.
On Tuesday evening also, in an internal party meeting, Mamata Banerjee had criticised the Congress’ “unjustified” demand for 10-12 Lok Sabha seats in her State; she had offered two, pointing to the Congress’ “abysmal record” since it won four seats in 2014 and only two in 2019.
