Cracks in INDIA alliance? TMC to contest all 42 seats in Bengal, no seat-sharing with Congress

 Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress is likely to field candidates in all the 42 Lok Sabha seats in West Bengal - a move that may upset the Congress and test the already fragile INDIA alliance. In the 2019 elections, the Congress had won two seats - Baharampur (Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury) and Maldaha Dakshin (Abu Hasem Khan Choudhury). This time, the grand old party was reportedly hoping to get 6 seats. 

However, India Today on Saturday reported that the TMC has decided to contest all seats and this decision was taken at a meeting of the party's top brass with the Murshidabad district leadership. 

Murshidabad district has three Lok Sabha seats -- Jangipur, Berhampur, and Murshidabad. In the 2019 election, Congress won the Berhampur seat while the other two were bagged by TMC. Congress state chief Chowdhury has been winning the Berhampur seat since 1999. 

Mamata Banerjee's party had initially offered two seats to Congress in West Bengal. The TMC reportedly wanted the seat-sharing formula to be based on the performance of the parties in the 2019 election and in the 2021 West Bengal Assembly polls. The TMC had cited that Congress garnered a vote share of less than 5 per cent.

Reacting to this development, Chowdhury on Saturday he did not care about anyone and that he would contest to win. "Those who think that I am not a factor, it’s okay. I don't care about anyone. Our leaders have already spoken. I have reached here only by contesting and winning. We know to contest and win,” he said while speaking to the media in Siliguri.

In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the BJP bagged 18 of 42 seats in West Bengal. Out of 42 seats, Congress only won two, while the TMC clinched 22 seats.

Last month, Mamata Banerjee had given a clear indication there would be no seat-sharing arrangement with the Congress or the Left Front in the state.

"The INDIA bloc will be there across the country. In Bengal, the TMC will fight and defeat the BJP. Remember, in Bengal, only TMC can teach a lesson to the BJP and not any other party," the chief minister had said during a rally.

(With inputs from Anirban Sinha Roy and Indrajit Kundu)