KOLKATA: Opposition bloc INDIA was dealt a jolt Wednesday when Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee cut Congress out of TMC’s Lok Sabha poll plan for the state, saying the party would go it alone on its turf while keeping the door ajar for “post-poll adjustments” at the “all-India level”. She said TMC would “do whatever is needed to defeat BJP”.
Referring to Congress MP Rahul Gandhi‘s Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra, Mamata said drawing up a route that passes through Bengal without keeping its INDIA ally Trinamool in the loop was “discourteous” of the grand old party.Mamata said Congress had been rejecting her proposals “from the very beginning” and hadn’t held any discussion with TMC in two weeks. “Whatever is being said (about seat-sharing) are blatant lies. I request everyone, including a section of the media, not to propagate that.”

Party spokesperson Kunal Ghosh later accused Congress of double standards. “They say in Delhi that TMC is a critical INDIA partner. In Kolkata, its leaders ridicule us. This cannot go on. The reality is that Congress did not win a single assembly seat in Bengal in the 2021 polls.” A TMC MP said the party had adhered to “alliance dharma and been courteous despite Bengal Congress chief Adhir Chowdhury’s pathetic and nasty comments against TMC”.
Didi: INDIA bloc doesn’t belong to any one party
The alliance (INDIA) does not belong to any one party. I said earlier that let them (Congress) contest 300 seats alone. The regional parties will fight the other seats, and they (Congress) should not interfere,” the Bengal CM said. “If Congress interferes in the other seats, we will decide what to do.” On Tuesday, Mamata suggested to TMC functionaries that the party could spare no more than two Bengal seats for Congress. “The party leadership could have considered a third, based on Congress’s reciprocity in Meghalaya or Assam. They would lose 40 seats in Bengal even if their vote share was multiplied by five,” the TMC MP said. “Congress’s strength lies in seven to eight states; no one will interfere there. We asked Congress at the Delhi meeting to make up its mind by Dec 31. We can’t wait any longer,” MP said.