2024 polls: Is it really splitsville for INDIA bloc and Mamata's TMC?

“No one has spoken to me (about seat sharing). My proposal was turned down at the outset,” Mamata Banerjee claimed on Wednesday's sidelines of an administrative meeting at Burdwan.

Hot and cold

Her comment came as a surprise as only a day earlier she had stated that her party would not concede more than two seats to the Congress, indicating that the seat-sharing negotiations were on.

The TMC would not give in to the “impractical demand” of the Congress for eight to 14 seats, Mamata told party leaders from Birbhum on Tuesday, adding her party would not set aside more than two seats for the grand old party.

She also called upon the TMC leaders and workers to be prepared to contest all 42 seats.

Rahul’s view

Her comment came shortly after Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, at a media briefing in Guwahati, ruled out any major hiccups in the parleys with the TMC.

“My party and I have an excellent relationship with Mamataji. Sometimes some people from both the parties make some (discordant) comments. These are natural things and these will not disrupt anything,” Gandhi said.

Belligerent Adhir

TMC sources said Banerjee is hardening her stand to send a message to the Congress’s central leadership, which has failed to “rein in” its state leaders, particularly Pradesh Congress chief Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury.

Chowdhury is in a belligerent mood, constantly launching tirades against the TMC. Congress sources said Chowdhury was keen on a pre-poll understanding with the CPI(M)-led Left Front and not with the TMC.

Ostensibly to derail the seat sharing talks with the TMC, the PCC headed by Chowdhury has come up with a stiff demand that has peeved the TMC leader.

Congress-Marxists

At least three TMC leaders The Federal spoke to stated that the ball was in the Congress’s court and that the alliance could still be stitched if the Congress came up with a practical demand.

“The Congress also needs to distance itself from the CPI (M). Now it is doing the CPI(M)’s bidding in the state,” a TMC MP told the Federal.

The Congress won only two seats -- Baharampur and Maldaha South -- in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections and failed to open an account in the 2021 assembly elections.

Minority votes

Despite that the TMC is reportedly keen for an alliance with the Congress because there are signs that its minority vote base, the mainstay of Banerjee’s party, is eroding.

The other INDIA constituent, the Left Front, has made it clear that it will have no truck with its arch rival TMC. The TMC is also not interested in a tie-up with the Communists.

Given the current scenario, the prospect of any INDIA alliance with the TMC as its constituent in Bengal hangs in balance. But all is not over yet.