Mamata Banerjee 'unwilling' to allot more than 2 seats to Congress
Times of India | 24 January 2024
KOLKATA: Chief minister Mamata Banerjee made it clear on Tuesday that she was not ready to set aside more than two Lok Sabha seats for Congress in Bengal, and it would not be possible to give in to their "impractical demands" of eight to 14 LS seats. Banerjee, while addressing the party's Birbhum leaders at Kalighat, indicated that Congress might be trying to "hand over" the "additional seats" to CPM and BJP. A party leader quoted her as saying, "This cannot go on. If necessary, we will fight alone in Bengal. Prepare to fight alone."
Earlier in the day, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had said seat-sharing with TMC was on the table. Banerjee, who had earlier stated she had no problem with Congress contesting in 300 LS seats pan India, questioned why the grand old party was unwilling to cede the remaining 150-odd LS seats to others in the INDIA bloc.
The growing TMC-Congress unease over seat-sharing in Bengal, which has 42 LS seats, came to the forefront on Monday when Banerjee said at a public meeting: "I gave the name INDIA for the opposition alliance. This is why it is sad for me to share that whenever we attend the alliance meeting, we see that CPM is controlling the same. We do not need advice from the party we fought for 34 years. We have been disrespected many times, but I insist that elections in particular regions should be left to regional parties, who are powerful in their areas. They can fight on 300 seats alone, and I will help them. I will not contest those seats. But they are adamant about doing what they want."
According to those who attended the meeting in Kalighat, the CM asked party leaders to prepare to fight in both the Birbhum LS seats.
Congress had won both seats (Berhampore and Malda South) in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls but lost to TMC in the 2021 assembly polls. "Demands must be on ground realities," said a party leader. "For example, if the Congress wants Raigunj LS, their performance in the 2021 assembly polls and the 2023 panchayat polls needs to be factored in. Any proposal, backed by facts, will surely be considered by the party leadership. But these cannot be abnormal demands," the leader said.
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