TMC sources: Congress made unreasonable demands, delayed discussion on seat sharing

As West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee announced that her party will contest the Lok Sabha elections in the state alone, TMC sources on Wednesday claimed that the Congress delayed talks and made unreasonable demands on seat sharing without accepting the ground reality.

He said the Trinamool Congress (TMC) was ready for “courtesy back-channel” talks, but there was hardly any hope of reaching an agreement.

Saying that TMC had offered two Lok Sabha seats to Congress in West Bengal, a senior party leader said it was ready to discuss the third seat provided Congress agreed to give seats to TMC in Meghalaya and Assam. .

The TMC leader accused the Congress of causing “undue delay” in seat-sharing discussions and said there has been no communication in the last two weeks.

The leader also alleged that the Congress was making unreasonable demands in terms of the number of seats without accepting the ground reality of Bengal.

TMC had suggested a formula to decide seat sharing based on the results of the previous elections and the offer the party made to the Congress was based on the same criteria.

Sources said a lot of damage was also done by the statements of Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, who recently called the West Bengal Chief Minister an ‘opportunist’ and also said that the Congress will contest the elections on its own.

Although TMC has not announced its exit from the India group, the leader said there is little possibility of seat sharing with the Congress in the state.

TMC is also skipping Congress’ Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra, while Communist Party of India (Marxist) is also likely to join it.

A TMC source claimed that he was not invited by the Congress to join the yatra.

The India Bloc suffered a double blow on Wednesday as Chief Ministers Mamata Banerjee and Bhagwant Mann refused to forge an alliance with the Congress in their respective states of West Bengal and Punjab for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

He said, “I had given them (Congress) a proposal (on seat sharing) but they rejected it in the beginning. Our party has now decided to contest the elections alone in Bengal,” Banerjee said amid the seat-sharing tussle between Congress and TMC.

The CM also said that he has not talked to anyone in Congress on the issue of seat sharing.