Abhishek questions 10-seat demand of Congress in Bengal after party’s debacle in Assam’s NCHAC elections

Kolkata: At a time when the negotiations over seat-sharing in Bengal is yet to reach any conclusion between the two parties for the Lok Sabha elections, Trinamool Congress (TMC) has criticised its INDIA bloc ally Congress for failing to win a single seat in the recently-concluded Assam’s North Cachar Autonomous Hill District Council elections (NCHAC).

Sharing the NCHAC poll results on social media, TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee wrote on X: “Despite contesting NCHAC elections for the first time @AITC4Assam managed a higher vote share than INC – the primary opposition. One might say their seat share aspirations in Bengal are akin to aiming for the stars when they couldn’t quite grasp the ground in their own backyard!”

In the NCHAC elections, the BJP made a complete sweep by winning 25 out of 28 seats. Although both TMC and the Congress failed to win a single seat, TMC won a higher vote share in the 11 seats it contested at12.4 per cent compared to the Congress’s 8.87 per cent across 22 seats.

The talks of seat-sharing between these two parties in Bengal have been put on the slow burn. Neither side has yet been able to reach an understanding. Whatever hopes it had are now dashed after the TMC refused to even meet the national alliance committee of the Congress which is holding talks with other INDIA bloc parties for seat sharing arrangement. On Saturday, TMC also skipped the INDIA bloc coordination panel meeting.

It had come to light that the Congress sought about 10 seats in Bengal from the TMC which has refused to part with more than two seats which the Congress had won in 2019 Lok

Sabha polls. TMC spokesperson Kunal Ghosh had likened the demand of seats by Congress to that of a child’s whim. He said that children often ask for chocolates or biscuits more than they can eat and Congress is behaving in a similar manner.

The seats under the radar of the state Congress in Bengal include Berhampore, Malda (South), Malda (North), Purulia, Raiganj, Murshidabad or Darjeeling. Out of these, Congress had won both Berhampore and Malda (South) in 2019 Parliamentary elections while TMC bagged Murshidabad. The rest were bagged by the BJP.

Sources said that Sonia Gandhi recently wrote to Mamata Banerjee, proposing her to take a call on seat sharing agreement over six Parliamentary constituencies. These six seats are Berhampore, Malda (South), Murshidabad,

Darjeeling, Raiganj and Purulia. It was learnt that the Congress has set a deadline of 10 days for TMC to convey its decision, indicating that the party wants the agreement to be finalised by January 20.