While reiterating party chief Mamata Banerjee’s position that the TMC would fight alone in the next year’s Assembly elections in West Bengal, the party’s national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee on Thursday hinted at keeping the door open for discussions.
“In Bengal, we have categorically stated that we are with the INDIA bloc for the larger interest. However, if Congress does not wish to explore any way forward or engage in seat-sharing, we will contest alone… Didi (Mamata Banerjee) has already made it clear that we will fight alone in Bengal. This is nothing new. We fought alone in 2014, 2016, 2019, and 2024, and won. We will do so again,” Abhishek, who is considered the Number 2 in the TMC, said.
On Monday, Mamata had told her MLAs that the Congress was not in a position of strength in West Bengal to spoil TMC’s chances of winning the next year’s elections in the state. “Here in West Bengal, Congress is not a factor. In Delhi, Congress can spoil the journey of AAP. But here they can’t. We will fight alone in the coming Assembly election and we will win more than two-thirds seats… Here nobody is a factor and can’t take away our votes. We will easily win in 2026,” the TMC chief had asserted.
Abhishek also said that the AAP lost in Delhi as it “failed to counter BJP’s false narratives”.
Speaking at a health camp in his Lok Sabha constituency Diamond Harbour, the TMC MP said: “They (AAP) failed to establish that the elected government of Delhi was not allowed to function… The BJP created the narrative that (AAP chief and former CM) Arvind Kejriwal has done nothing in the past five years and was successful in establishing it.”
On whether Congress and AAP, both constituents of the INDIA bloc would have formed an alliance in Delhi, Abhishek said: “This is an internal matter. Whether alone or in an alliance, it depends on public support. A few seats might have been affected. The people of Delhi believed a change was necessary.”
Though the TMC, Congress, and the Left parties are part of the INDIA bloc, Congress and Left fought against the TMC in last year’s Lok Sabha elections in Bengal. The TMC won 29 of the total 42 Lok Sabha seats in West Bengal, while the Congress won one.