Kolkata: The Trinamool Congress (TMC) has set a “non-negotiable” seat–sharing deadline of 31 December for the Congress, leaders from West Bengal’s ruling party told ThePrint. It also presented a three-way formula to decide seat-sharing numbers during the INDIA alliance meeting in Delhi Tuesday.
“We have suggested that while deciding the seats, the parties should look at either the 2019 Lok Sabha results in their states or the last legislative poll results, or a third way by looking at both Lok Sabha and state poll results to decide how many seats can be shared amongst the opposition parties,” a senior TMC leader told ThePrint.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s party had secured a landslide victory in the state polls in 2021, demolishing the Congress and CPIM, both now part of the INDIA front. For the first time in Bengal politics, both Congress and CPIM have no MLAs in the state legislative assembly. The TMC had registered an all-time high 47.9 percent votes by securing 213 seats out of 294. The BJP rose as the principal opposition party with 77 seats for the first time in the state.
TMC sources said that the party was ready to give two seats to the Congress in West Bengal — Berhampore, from where state Congress chief Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury has been winning since 1999, and Malda Dakshin, from where veteran Congress leader Abu Hasem Khan has been elected MP since 2009, after the delimitation of Malda district.
The TMC has also demanded one seat from the Congress in Meghalaya, which sends two MPs to the Lok Sabha from Tura and Shillong.
The Congress, however, is eyeing at least six Lok Sabha seats in West Bengal. Senior party MP Pradip Bhattacharya told ThePrint that he has suggested six seats — Murshidabad, Berhampore, Malda Uttar, Malda Dakshin, Darjeeling, Purulia — to the Congress high command for the party to fight from in the 2024 polls.
Less than 24 hours after the INDIA meet, West Bengal Congress leaders had a meeting with party president Mallikarjun Kharge and MP Rahul Gandhi on seat sharing.
“The meeting of West Bengal leaders in New Delhi was to put forward the views we have individually about seat sharing in West Bengal, before negotiations begin. In politics, nothing is impossible. Let us see the outcome of the Congress meeting in New Delhi, we want to fight in at least six seats in West Bengal, our goal is to defeat the BJP,” Bhattacharya told ThePrint.
A senior TMC leader aware of what transpired at the meeting in Delhi’s Ashoka Hotel said, “Congress should fight all out in states such as Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka in about 300-odd seats.”
The TMC, it is learnt, feels Akhilesh Yadav should decide seat-sharing numbers for Uttar Pradesh, Sharad Pawar and Uddhav Thackeray should finalise Maharashtra seats, MK Stalin should decide for Tamil Nadu and Mamata should look at West Bengal, while Nitish Kumar and Lalu Prasad Yadav should decide Bihar seat sharing numbers.
“Why should TMC look at Tamil Nadu numbers or Uttar Pradesh numbers? It will be a waste of time. Instead, the leaders who are the strongest in these states amongst the opposition parties should be the ones deciding the numbers,” the senior TMC leader said.
Meanwhile, West Bengal BJP chief and MP Dr Sukanta Majumdar told reporters: “The Opposition will continue to hold meetings for eternity. In the meantime, PM Modi will take oath for the third time.”
(Edited by Gitanjali Das)
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