TMC likely to renew seat-sharing bargain with Congress

MP, 11 Dec 2023, Kolkata: With the recent defeat of the Congress in the Assembly elections of three states, Trinamool Congress (TMC) is likely to renew its seat-sharing bargain with the grand old party for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections as part of the I.N.D.I.A bloc. 

Congress’ debacle, especially in Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan, where it was previously holding fort, has sent a clear message to the other Opposition parties inside the I.N.D.I.A block that all is not well within the bastions of the grand old party and that it should cease to act as the towering figure within the Opposition coalition, said a TMC insider. 

Such an opinion further gained ground during the autopsy of the poll results by TMC’s national general secretary, Abhishek Banerjee. Abhishek highlighted that Congress needs to first put its own house in order. 

According to some political observers, Abhishek’s analysis is closer to truth than the popular conjectures doing the rounds. He had pointed out that in Rajasthan, Congress lost by a margin of two per cent and remarked that the party should give chance to its deserving workers and fix their internal strife. Banerjee had said: “Congress Pradesh and state leaders are suffering from complacency and pride.” 

In light of such a development, sources said that the TMC is likely to renew its bargaining with Congress over seat sharing for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls. The issue may come up in the next I.N.D.I.A bloc meeting. In the previous round of talks, sources said that TMC had demanded for some seats in Meghalaya where it was able to make inroads during the state’s Assembly elections. 

It was able to clinch five seats. Hence, Trinamool feels that it has chances of winning some parliamentary seats there. Party insiders said that Congress has asked for some seats in Bengal. 

“People have shown overwhelming support for TMC in the 2021 Assembly elections where the Congress failed to clinch even one seat. This needs to be realised by them. If TMC leaves more than two seats in Bengal then Congress too needs to give us our choice of seats outside Bengal,” said the party source. 

Further, TMC leadership is learnt to have also conveyed to the top rung leaders of Congress that the latter’s Bengal unit leaders should stop opposing the ruling party of the state as it may affect the overall seat-sharing understanding for the parliamentary elections. 

https://www.millenniumpost.in/bengal/tmc-likely-to-renew-seat-sharing-bargain-with-cong-543775