New Delhi: By announcing candidates for all the 42 Lok Sabha seats in West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee buried all alliance hopes of the Congress party. Though West Bengal CM had already made Trinamool Congress' intentions to contest the 2024 Lok Sabha elections very clear, however, she put the discussion to an end by announcing the names of TMC candidates from the state today.
Expressing his disappointment with TMC's announcement, Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said he doesn't know what pressure was on TMC that it went to announce the candidates for LS Polls in West Bengal unilaterally.
Congress general secretary and spokesperson said that the party always wanted a respectable seat-sharing formula with the TMC in West Bengal, which requires some compromise.
"The Indian National Congress has always maintained that it wants a respectable seat-sharing formula with the TMC in West Bengal. It means mutual negotiations, give and take, some compromise," said Jairam Ramesh.
"We have always said that our doors are open for negotiations and seat-sharing talks but there should be no unilateral announcement of the seats. We should do it collectively together as we have done in Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Delhi, UP, and so on...The TMC has announced, I don't know what pressure was there on the TMC, but as far as we are concerned we want to strengthen the INDIA alliance in West Bengal...So let's see what happens," he added.
Mamata Banerjee, under attack from the BJP over recent incident of Sandeshkhali, on Sunday held a massive rally in Kolkata’ Brigade Ground where she announced names of TMC candidates for all 42 Lok Sabha seats, crushing Congress' all hopes for alliance in West Bengal.
The party fielded Biplab Mitra from the Balurghat constituency and Shatrughan Sinha from Asansol. Betting big on cricketers this time as well, Mamata Banerjee announced to field Yusuf Pathan from the Berhampur (Berhampore) seat.
