Kolkata: Unimpressed by the Congress’s overtures and reconciliatory tone, West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee has shut the door on the former ally, at least until the elections. Speaking to ThePrint on the sidelines of the ‘At home’ ceremony at Kolkata’s Raj Bhavan, Mamata said there is no scope for reconsidering her decision to not tie up with Congress in the state.
“They brought such a big yatra to West Bengal, they did not give me any information, not a single (piece of) information. How can you think I can go back?” she responded when asked if she would rethink her decision.
She was referring to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra, the sequel to his Bharat Jodo Yatra which concluded in January last year. The yatra is currently in its West Bengal leg.
Both Sonia Gandhi and daughter Priyanka sent text messages to enquire about her health after she suffered minor injuries in a car accident earlier this week, Mamata said.
While media reports claimed Friday that Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge had reached out to Mamata for further talks, her party, the Trinamool Congress (TMC) maintains there has been no communication ever since it decided to fight the elections alone.
“No one from the Congress has spoken to me about the INDIA alliance since our party’s decision to fight solo in Bengal. Rest, we will see after the election what has to be done,” the CM said.
Mamata had announced earlier this week that TMC will fight the general election on all of West Bengal’s 42 parliamentary seats. The decision led to questions about the future of Mamata and TMC in the 28-party INDIA alliance.
TMC leaders have blamed Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, the Congress’s legislative party leader in Lok Sabha and the chief of the West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee for the breakdown of seat-sharing talks — the immediate trigger for the TMC’s decision.
ThePrint had previously reported that Bengal’s Congress leaders, led by Adhir, had voiced their reluctance to fight the election with the TMC — the party’s principal rival in the state.
“When Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury speaks in Bengal, the voice is his but words are of a duo in Delhi,” TMC MP Derek O’Brien told ThePrint earlier, without elaborating or naming anyone.
As ties between the two parties continued to be strained, Adhir reportedly called O’Brien a “foreigner” — remarks that drew backlash from various quarters.
However, according to TMC leaders, Mamata has forbidden the party from passing adverse remarks about the Congress “to maintain decorum within the INDIA bloc”.
This comes at a time when Mamata has been holding a series of meetings with TMC’s district leaders while her party has been holding public rallies at the grassroots level to keep the election momentum going.
Significantly, Rahul will Sunday continue his yatra in north Bengal, where Mamata is scheduled to hold administrative meetings.
Asked if she would be willing to meet the Congress leader if he sought an appointment, Mamata said she would “offer him a cup of tea”.
(Edited by Uttara Ramaswamy)
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