TMC's Full List of Lok Sabha Candidates Out; Congress Still Hopeful

All is not well in the INDIA bloc which showed cracks yet again as Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee-led TMC 'unilaterally' announced its candidates for all 42 seats in West Bengal for the coming Lok Sabha elections. However, Congress sought to underplay it as a small matter with its national president Mallikarjun Kharge saying that their alliance may happen before the withdrawal of nominations.

TMC LS List of 42 Seats a Blow to INDIA Bloc

Published : Mar 10, 2024, 4:03 PM IST

Updated : Mar 11, 2024, 9:48 AM IST

New Delhi :INDIA bloc suffered its worst blow as its member TMC announced the list of candidates for all the 42 seats for the coming Lok Sabha elections in West Bengal. In an indirect reference to the TMC's list, the Congress initially hit back saying that it has expressed its strong desire for having a mutually respectable seat sharing between the two parties. However, the grand old party also hinted that the alliance may happen anytime before the withdrawal of nominations.

It all started after TMC chief and WB Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee earlier announced at a public meeting in Kolkata that her party had decided to announce candidates for all the 42 seats in the State. Soon after, TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee announced their party list for all the 42 seats in West Bengal, which is seen as yet another setback to the Congress, which is struggling to get along with many other INDIA alliance partners across the country. The TMC list came at a time when the Congress leaders were claiming that they would reach an agreement.

Since the beginning, Mamata Banerjee has been having differences with Congress on some issue other. She has not taken part in Congress MP Rahul Gandhi's Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra when it passed through West Bengal. Also, the TMC sat with the Congress leaders to discuss the seat sharing several times in the last few weeks but these talks hit a deadlock. TMC is unwilling to oblige the Congress, which is seeking more than three seats.

While announcing today's LS list, the TMC did not care to consult INDIA bloc partners. However, the Congress still expressed the hope that the alliance prospects will remain open till the withdrawal of nominations. In his response to the TMC issue, Congress national president Mallikarjun Kharge said that their alliance may become a reality anytime before the withdrawal of nominations.

Meanwhile, Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh took to X, formerly Twitter, saying: "The Indian National Congress has repeatedly declared its desire to have a respectable seat-sharing agreement with the TMC in West Bengal. The Indian National Congress has always maintained that such an agreement has to be finalised through negotiations and not by unilateral announcements."

Jairam Ramesh further stressed that their party has always wanted the INDIA group to fight the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) together in the upcoming general elections in the country.

Congress Leader in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhary said that by alienating herself from the INDIA Alliance, TMC chief has sent a message to PM Modi that her party is not standing to fight against the BJP in the coming elections. Adhir Ranjan sharply reacted to the TMC's list of candidates, saying that Mamata Banerjee is afraid that if TMC continues in the opposition alliance, it will anger PM Modi.

Congress and TMC leaders have been engaged in a war of words in the recent past over seat-sharing in West Bengal, with the Mamata Banerjee-led party asserting that it cannot offer more than two seats to the Congress. The Congress has two MPs from West Bengal. The TMC is part of the INDIA bloc and has stated that the opposition parties are united in the fight against the BJP to defeat it in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.

Among the major highlights in Trinamool's Lok Sabha candidate list are that of former cricketers Yusuf Pathan and Kirti Azad. Pathan has been nominated from the Baharampur seat, which has been a traditional Congress seat and state Congress president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury is the sitting member of Parliament from there.

Kirti Azad has been nominated from Bardhaman-Durgapur seat. Putting the rest speculations on a possible change among some senior members in Mamata's team of MPs, Trinamool Congress has renominated party MPs Sudip Bandopadhyay (Kolkata-North), Mala Roy (Kolkata-South), Sougata Roy (Dumdum), Kalyan Banerjee (Sreerampur) and Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar (Barasat). Party MP Mohua Moitra, who has been in the eye of a recent controversy, has been renominated from Krishnanagar seat.