TMC officially rules out alliance in West Bengal; Congress responds
The Congress lashed out at the Trinamool Congress (TMC) on Sunday after the Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee-led party announced candidates for all 42 Lok Sabha seats for the upcoming elections. Reacting to the announcement, top Congress leader Jairam Ramesh revealed that the grand old party always wanted a respectable seat-sharing formula with the TMC in West Bengal.
Why does this story matter?
The TMC officially revealed its candidate list at a mega public meeting, "Jana Garjan Sabha," at Kolkata's Brigade Parade Ground. The announcement made it clear that the TMC and the opposition's Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) bloc will not form an alliance for the 2024 polls in Bengal. Meanwhile, the party will also contest solo in Assam, while seat-sharing talks are ongoing with the Samajwadi Party (SP) in Uttar Pradesh.
Congress always wanted INDIA bloc to fight BJP together: Ramesh
While clarifying Congress's stand in Bengal, Ramesh wrote on X, "The Indian National Congress has always maintained that such an agreement has to be finalized through negotiations and not by unilateral announcements." Furthermore, the veteran grand old party leader said that the Congress always wanted the INDIA bloc to fight the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) together in the upcoming general elections.
TMC's candidate list includes new faces, drops sitting MPs
In its roster of candidates for the Lok Sabha elections, the TMC dropped at least eight sitting MPs and introduced several newcomers, including former cricketer Yusuf Pathan. Pathan will run for the Baharampur Lok Sabha seat, which is currently held by Banerjee's critic, Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury. Additionally, TMC replaced sitting MP Nusrat Jahan with former MP Haji Nurul Islam for the Basirhat Lok Sabha seat and nominated expelled MP Mahua Moitra from Krishnanagar for a second consecutive term.
You can check out TMC's full candidate list here
What went wrong
The Congress and TMC are both members of the INDIA bloc, formed last July to fight the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in Lok Sabha elections. However, even months after its formation, seat-sharing talks never came to fruition. In January, Banerjee announced that her party would go solo. Congress sought eight to 10 seats in Bengal, while TMC refused to go beyond two-three. The delay in seat-sharing talks also caused Bihar CM Nitish Kumar, in part, to exit the bloc.
Here's how TMC performed in previous general elections
The TMC managed to win 22 of the 42 seats in the last general elections, while the BJP secured 18 seats and the Congress bagged the remaining two seats. On the other hand, the BJP-led NDA won a total of 303 seats in 2019, leaving the defunct Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) with just 52 seats. In the 2014 general elections, the Banerjee-led party won 34 parliamentary seats in the state.
