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The Trinamool Congress will contest the elections for Bengal's 42 Lok Sabha seats on its own steam, and only consider an pan-India alliance with the Congress after results are declared, a furious Mamata Banerjee declared Wednesday. Ms Banerjee's words deliver what appears to be a final blow to hopes the two parties - widely seen as important members of the INDIA opposition bloc - will reach any agreement.
"I have no relations with the Congress... we will fight alone (and) will decide on an all-India level after the election," the Bengal Chief Minister said, saying she has not spoken to the Congress about agreements.
In further signs of fraying tempers, she also hit out at Congress MP Rahul Gandhi and his 'Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra', which will enter Bengal Thursday but might skip Kolkata.
"They are coming to my state... but did not have courtesy to inform me..." she told reporters.
Ms Banerjee has a good rapport with Congress matriarch Sonia Gandhi, but her ties with Mr Gandhi are seen as strained. She has made it clear, earlier too, she is against allowing her 'ally' to contest in Bengal.
"INDIA will be present in India (but) in Bengal the Trinamool Congress will fight. In Bengal it is only Trinamool that can teach the BJP a lesson. It can show the entire country the path to victory... not any other party," she has said in the past.
The Trinamool vs Congress squabble over seat-sharing, and the larger picture of how the Congress-led INDIA bloc might most effectively defeat Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his BJP, has rumbled on for weeks with no apparent resolution. Neither party seems willing to back down, and the Congress has, so far, ignored the Trinamool's deadlines to close a deal.
On Tuesday Ms Banerjee criticised the Congress' "unjustified" demand for 10-12 Lok Sabha seats in her state; she had offered two, pointing to the Congress' abysmal record in the state. The party won four seats in 2014 and only two in 2019.
A senior Trinamool leader, on condition of anonymity, confirmed this to news agency PTI, saying, "(Ms Banerjee) said we don't need to think about seat-sharing with the Congress... she said she offered two seats but they were demanding 10-12".
Trinamool spokesperson Kunal Ghosh last week warned the Congress against "unjustified bargaining in this matter".
Meanwhile, Ms Banerjee, in a show of strength, has directed party leaders in Birbhum and Murshidabad district to begin planning for the Lok Sabha election on their own. The latter is key because it holds Congress MP Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury's constituency; Mr Chowdhury, the Congress' state unit boss, is fiercely opposed to sharing seats with the Trinamool.
The Congress leader has repeatedly attacked Ms Banerjee and her party, despite efforts from central leaders on both sides to stitch together an alliance. Congress MP Rahul Gandhi, asked about these attacks, played them down, insisting "Mamata Banerjee is very close to me and our party" and that it is "natural", sometimes, for the two sides to criticise each other.
"But they are not going to disrupt the relations between the Congress and the TMC," he insisted.
Meanwhile, away from Bengal, the Trinamool is also unhappy over the Congress' apparent refusal to play second fiddle to regional parties when required. The Congress has already been criticised for this by Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav after it refused to share seats for November's Madhya Pradesh Assembly election, in which the Congress was thumped.
Ms Banerjee on Monday said the Congress was welcome to fight 300 seats on its own, but urged the party to surrender seats in particular regions to regional parties that might have the best chance of winning, and, therefore, defeat the BJP.
"Particular regions should be left to regional parties. They can fight 300 seats alone... I will help them, I will not contest those seats... but they are adamant about doing what they want," she said, "I have the power to take on the BJP, but some people don't want to listen to us about seat-sharing. If you don't want to fight the BJP, then at least don't give away seats to it."
Ms Banerjee is one of the few opposition leaders to have enjoyed electoral success against the BJP in recent years, after orchestrating a statement win over the saffron party in the last Assembly election. In 2019 too she ensured her party had an edge, winning 22 seats. That, though, was less than the 34 from five years ago. Ominously, BJP went from two to 18.
With input from agencies
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