Trinamool Congress (TMC) chairperson Mamata Banerjee, on Wednesday, said that she was the first to pitch a seat-sharing proposal to the Congress but since the latter refused to accept her deal her party will alone fight against the BJP in Bengal in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.
She also accused the Congress of teaming up with the CPI(M) to strengthen the BJP in the state ahead of the Parliamentary polls.
Banerjee, on Wednesday, addressed public meetings in Malda and Murshidabad and held roadshows which drew a large footfall. While addressing a public meeting she said: “I had first proposed to the Congress that TMC is ready to leave two seats for them in Malda since they do not have a single MLA in Bengal. They rejected my offer by asking for more seats. Perhaps, next they will say they want all 42 seats in Bengal and thereafter they will lose in every one of them, thus helping the BJP to increase its seats in the state.”
She added: “If the BJP wins, they will come and loot Bengal and murder the people. I will not allow this. I can fight the BJP alone.”
Banerjee questioned: “Here, two MP seats were won by the Congress but what have they done for Malda?”
She added: “Some of Barkat-da’s (late Congress leader Gani Khan Chowdhury) family members will contest, we have nothing to say. They will tie up with the CPIM to strengthen the hands of BJP.”
Even though the TMC has been so far blaming the state Congress chief Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury for the collapse of the seat-sharing talks, Banerjee said that it is the CPI(M) which is solely responsible for spoiling the relations between her party and the Congress.
She said that CPI(M) is the biggest agent of the BJP and that she will never forgive the Left for the atrocities they allegedly committed in the state and against her. Banerjee alleged that due to CPI(M’s) interference the alliance talks between her party and Congress collapsed.
Alluding to both CPI(M) and Congress, she said: “There are some parties which start chirping like cuckoos at the time of elections. You cannot hear them for the rest of the year. Our fight against the BJP will continue. We will fight alone. If anyone can defeat BJP, it is Trinamool Congress.”
However, even though Mamata has sidelined the possibility of an alliance, Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said: “Till now things have not been finalised on our end. In an alliance all members should speak in one voice. One-sided decisions cannot be taken... There are three parties in the INDIA alliance. If all these three want to fight separately, they should officially announce this. Till now we are considering that the INDIA alliance will fight together in West Bengal as well.”