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Amid a war of words triggered by Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury’s comments regarding seat-sharing in West Bengal, sources from the Trinamool Congress (TMC) on Thursday said they will give more time to ally Congress to sort out issues, adding the party is committed to the opposition bloc.
IMAGE: Congress leader Sonia Gandhi with West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. Photograph: ANI Photo
The TMC had pushed for a December 31 deadline for seat sharing talks in the last meeting of the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) on December 19.
While the deadline has passed, the Congress leaders have said the seat sharing talks are set to start any time now.
“We are big hearted, we are committed to the INDIA alliance. It seems they want a few more days to sort this out,” said a senior TMC leader.
A formula was proposed by the TMC, where they had suggested that the vote share of last parliamentary election or the vote share of the last assembly polls or both can be taken in account for finalising the strongest party on a seat and the decision should be left to the strongest party in the state.
However, no standardised formula has been finalised and the discussions are to be held by the state leaders.
Asked about speculations over Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar being made the convener of the INDIA bloc, a TMC source said party chief Mamata Banerjee had proposed Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge’s name as it could have benefitted the opposition bloc on at least 58 seats, where the Dalit community is dominant.
The source added that no discussions have been held on any joint rallies yet, one of the decisions taken at the December 19 meeting, as seat sharing talks need to be concluded before deciding on campaigning.
With the Congress set to launch the second leg of ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ — the ‘Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra’, which will cross through West Bengal, the TMC source said so far there have been no discussions on holding any joint programmes.
The route map for the yatra was released on Thursday.
The yatra will be in West Bengal for five days, covering 523 km and seven districts, including Murshidabad. Chowdhury’s constituency Baharampur is in Murshidabad district.
The Congress and the TMC on Thursday clashed over seat-sharing for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls in West Bengal.
“The grand old party won’t beg for seats from the TMC,” said Chowdhury.
This prompted a sharp reaction from West Bengal’s ruling party.
TMC MP Sougata Roy said, “Badmouthing TMC and our party supremo Mamata Banerjee and alliance can’t go hand in hand. The regular insults hurled at us by Chowdhury and some leaders of the Bengal Congress have to stop if the party wants an alliance.”
“The Congress high command must rein in Adhir Chowdhury if they want an alliance in Bengal,” he added.
