TMC 'refuses' to give more than 2 MP seats to Congress; deadlock continues in INDIA bloc

The ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) in West Bengal is not ready to give more than two MP seats to Congress in the coming Lok Sabha elections, sources say. But Congress says it has already got two sitting MPs in the State and there is no need for support of any ally to win them. With this, INIDA bloc's proposed seat sharing talks in West Bengal reached a deadlock even before they began.

Kolkata : Trinamool Congress is not interested in holding a meeting with the Congress on the seat sharing issue and, hence, not even deputing a representative for the talks in this connection, sources said. The ruling party in West Bengal has already informed that Trinamool does not want to concede more than two MP seats to Congress in the State.

"Congress could not win a single seat in the last assembly elections in the state. Not only that, their vote share dropped to three percent. So what is there to discuss?" a top Trinamool leader said on the condition of anonymity. The Trinamool has already agreed to give two seats to Congress, which is expecting five to six seats.

Apart from the two seats Congress won, it also staked claim for Darjeeling, Raiganj, Murshidabad and Purulia Lok Sabha seats. Of these, the Trinamool Congress won the Murshidabad seat last time and the BJP won all the remaining seats - Darjeeling, Raiganj and Purulia.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had earlier said, "If the Congress is in a position to win, I have no problem in giving seats to them. In Bengal, they actually have no more than two seats." Incidentally, if one takes a look at the results of the last Lok Sabha polls, the ruling Trinamool Congress won 22 seats from West Bengal while BJP got 18. Only two seats went to Congress.

In 2021 Assembly elections, Congress' vote share dipped to 2.93 percent. The Trinamool Congress leadership feels that it is unfair for the Congress to claim more than two seats in this situation. In this context, a senior MP of Trinamool Congress said that Mamata Banerjee herself is looking into the whole matter. "She has repeatedly said that they should fight the BJP where it is strong. Trinamool Congress is strong in West Bengal. Congress should help us," the leader said.

Incidentally, the state Congress president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury was concerned about the seat sharing a few days ago. He clearly said that the Congress does not need anyone's help to win two seats in West Bengal. Congress has the power to win two seats on its own. It is clear from Adhir Chowdhury's statement that he is not willing to walk the path of alliance with two seats in West Bengal.

In this situation, since the Trinamool Congress did not join the discussion on the seat sharing, the question of INDIA alliance will not come up in West Bengal in the coming general election.

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