Cong made unreasonable demands, delayed seat-sharing discussions: TMC leaders

As West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee announced that her party will go alone in the Lok Sabha polls in the state, TMC leaders on Wednesday claimed the Congress delayed the talks and made unreasonable demands on seat-sharing without acknowledging the ground reality.

The Trinamool Congress (TMC) is open to ''courtesy back-channel'' talks but there is hardly any hope left for reaching a pact, they said.

Maintaining that TMC had offered two Lok Sabha seats to the Congress in West Bengal, a senior party leader in New Delhi said it was open to discussing a third seat, provided Congress agrees to give the TMC seats in Meghalaya and Assam.

The TMC leader accused the Congress of causing ''unreasonable delay'' in seat-sharing discussions, saying no communication has happened in the last two weeks.

The leader also alleged that the Congress was making unreasonable demands in terms of the number of seats without acknowledging the ground reality of Bengal.

The TMC had suggested a formula for deciding seat sharing based on the results of previous elections, and the offer the party made to Congress was based on those criteria.

According to TMC leaders, the party had offered two seats to the Congress, based on its 2019 performance, but it demanded 10-12 seats in which it got less than 3 per cent votes.

The Congress won two -- Maldaha Dakshin and Baharampur -- of the state's 42 Lok Sabha seats in 2019, recording an overall vote share of 5.97 per cent in West Bengal. In the 2021 assembly elections, it drew a blank with a vote share of 2.9 per cent.

A senior TMC leader in Kolkata emphasised that the initial understanding at the India Bloc meetings was a 1:1 fight against the BJP.

''But the Congress was unwilling to follow the formula. They were not ready to share seats where they are strong, but want seats from regional parties from the states where they don't have any presence,'' he said.

Another TMC leader criticised the Congress for giving undue importance to CPI(M) at India bloc meetings and in West Bengal.

''Be it the INDIA bloc meetings or West Bengal, the Congress is obsessed with the CPI(M) for reasons best known to them. We are an important ally of the INDIA bloc, but they declined to give much importance to us. We will not work as per the instructions of the CPI(M), against whom we fought for three decades,'' he said.

Banerjee had on Monday accused the CPI (M) of trying to control the opposition bloc's agenda.

The CPI(M), Congress, and the TMC are part of the 28-party INDIA bloc. However, in West Bengal, the CPI(M) and Congress are opposed to the TMC, and the BJP.

The CPI(M) and Congress had contested the 2016 and 2021 assembly polls in West Bengal, in an alliance.

Another flashpoint between the TMC and the Congress was the Rahul Gandhi-led Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra, which is scheduled to enter West Bengal on Thursday.

A TMC leader claimed they were not officially invited to attend the programme, despite it crossing various districts of West Bengal.

While it is almost certain that the TMC will skip the Yatra, the CPI(M) in all probability will join it.

The INDIA bloc received twin setbacks with Banerjee and Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann ruling out an alliance with the Congress in their respective states for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.

''I had given them (Congress) a proposal (on seat sharing) but they refused it at the outset. Our party has now decided to go alone in Bengal,'' Banerjee said.

The CM also asserted that she has not spoken to anyone in Congress on the seat-sharing issue. TMC had previously allied with the Congress in the 2001 assembly polls, the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, and the 2011 assembly polls, leading to the ousting of the CPI (M)-led Left Front government of 34 years.