Mamata Banerjee's TMC offers 2 Lok Sabha seats to INDIA ally Congress in Bengal: Sources

The Trinamool Congress (TMC) has offered two Lok Sabha seats to INDIA alliance partner Congress in West Bengal for the 2024 general elections, sources told India Today on Wednesday. Mamata Banerjee's party, which won 22 seats with 43 per cent votes in 2019, thinks that the dominant party in the state should be allowed to take the final call on seat sharing, sources said.

Also read: 'Your leaders have left': Congress rejects Uddhav Sena's demand for 23 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra

Sources further said that the seat-sharing number is based on a clear formula involving a look at parliamentary elections and a look at state assembly elections.

In the last Lok Sabha election, the Congress contested all 42 Lok Sabha seats but could win just two - Maldaha Dakshin and Berhampore. The grand old party got just 5.67 per cent votes, less than the CPI(M) which got 6.33 per cent votes.

India Today reported that the TMC also reiterated its choice of Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge as INDIA bloc convenor. Sources said that while the party did not have anything against Nitish Kumar, it believed that Kharge would have a better impact as the Opposition alliance's convenor.

The TMC believes that Kharge, who hails from the Dalit community, is the better option as he can influence 58 seats, sources said. In the last opposition meeting in Delhi, Mamata Banerjee had proposed the name of Kharge for the prime ministerial face in 2024.

However, reports emerged later that Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar was upset with the proposal. There have been speculations that Nitish may switch sides again as the RJD was reportedly trying to install Tejashwi Yadav as the chief minister by engineering a split in JDU. Now, there have been reports that Nitish may be appointed INDIA bloc's convenor to stop him from joining the NDA again.

(With inputs from Indrajit Kundu)