LS polls: Trinamool initiates talks with Congress for seat-sharing in Bengal

With the Lok Sabha polls inching closer with each passing day, Trinamool Congress (TMC) is learnt to have begun initial talks with the Congress over the seat-sharing formula in Bengal wherein it is reluctant to spare more than two seats while in return has sought two seats outside the state from the grand old party.

TMC, on Tuesday, had clarified that its chairperson Mamata Banerjee will take the final call on seat sharing in terms of Bengal. In such a context, Banerjee reportedly has struck up initial conversations with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on the sidelines of the INDIA bloc meeting.

Even as the state unit of Congress apparently does not conform to the idea of seat sharing with the TMC in Bengal, its top-rung leaders feel that it cannot focus on regional politics if it has to oust the BJP government from the Centre in the Lok

Sabha elections.

Hence, looking at the bigger picture, Congress is learnt to have sought for at least five to six seats from

TMC in Bengal.

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

by the BJP.

However, this time the Congress has also focused on Darjeeling after Binay Tamang switched to Congress from TMC last month. He now has been made the general secretary of the West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee and has been given charge of the affairs in the Hills ahead of the polls.

TMC, as per party sources, is willing to spare the two seats which Congress won in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. In return, it wants two seats each in Assam and Meghalaya from the grand old party.

Sources said that Mamata clarified that she is open to fair negotiations and even suggested that Congress, out of 543 seats, can pose a one-on-one fight in 300 seats against the BJP and spare 100 seats for the INDIA bloc parties.

TMC insiders said: “People have shown overwhelming support for TMC in the 2021 Assembly elections where the Congress failed to clinch even one seat. This needs to be realised by them. If TMC leaves more than two seats in Bengal then Congress too needs to give us our choice of seats outside Bengal.”