Trinamool, Congress seat-sharing talks in Bengal hit a brick wall
The seat sharing talks between Trinamool Congress and Congress (TMC) seems to have hit a brick wall as both the parties have now launched a tirade against each other ahead of the Lok
Sabha elections.
Even as the top-rung leaders of both the parties have expressed hopes of a possible alliance as part of INDIA bloc in terms of seat sharing in Bengal, down the hierarchy party leaders are rattling sabres over issues concerning regional politics.
In Bengal, TMC spokesperson Kunal Ghosh has launched a scathing attack against the Pradesh Congress chief Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, calling him a “BJP stooge”. Ever since the 2021 Assembly elections, Trinamool Congress has maintained its allegations that Congress allied with the Left to help the BJP win seats in Bengal.
It alleged that the alliance was formed to eat into TMC’s vote to provide an edge to the BJP in the Assembly elections. Further, the TMC has also been criticising the Congress for failing to win a single seat in the state elections.
In return, Adhir is learnt to have questioned that if indeed the TMC feels that the Congress has become irrelevant in Bengal then why is it wanting to enter into a seat-sharing agreement with it. He reportedly said that the Congress has never evinced interest in entering into an alliance
with the TMC.
Adhir has further alleged that the downfall of TMC has begun in Bengal given the amount of corruption cases against their leaders.
Simultaneously, the West Bengal Pradesh Congress leaders are learnt to have reportedly proposed certain conditions to its senior leaders if the alliance is to materialise in Bengal.
Sources said that there are broadly two conditions placed with the Congress high command which have come to light. One of these involves several cases against state Congress leaders that are still open in several police stations across the state. It has been proposed that these cases must be dealt with by the TMC-led state administration in Bengal. Sources in the Congress said many of these are false cases slapped against them
allegedly by TMC.
The second condition is that the TMC will have to return at least some of the Congress party offices in Bengal which were allegedly overtaken by them over the years. Such demands have been placed with the Alliance Committee of the party at Nagpur.
The Pradesh Congress leaders had earlier learnt to have suggested an alliance with the Left in Bengal but the party’s high command has made clear their intentions of forging an alliance with TMC.
