Lok Sabha polls: TMC to go it alone in Bengal; Congress says ‘doors still open’

The Trinamool Congress (TMC) has dropped at least eight sitting MPs and brought in several new faces in its candidate list for West Bengal in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

The party will fight all 42 Lok Sabha seats of the state on its own, as it was revealed from the list declared from the Brigade Parade Grounds on Sunday (March 10). The move has left the Congress, which is the party’s ally in the INDIA bloc, fuming.

Yusuf vs Adhir?

The TMC has renominated 16 sitting MPs, and fielded 12 women. Among the new faces is former cricketer Yusuf Pathan, who will contest from the Baharampur Lok Sabha seat, where the sitting MP is veteran Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, who has won the seat five consecutive times.

Another former cricketer, Kriti Azad, has been fielded from the Bardhaman-Durgapur constituency, where the sitting MP is SS Ahluwalia of the BJP.

Mahua gets another chance

Expelled Lok Sabha MP Mahua Moitra has been renominated from Krishnanagar for the second consecutive term, while sitting MP Nusrat Jahan has been dropped from the Basirhat Lok Sabha seat, of which Sandeshkhali is a part. Haji Nurul Islam, who was the MP from the seat during the 2009-14 term, has been brought back.

The list was announced from TMC's mega rally held at Brigade Parada Grounds in Kolkata, where West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said the party will contest Lok Sabha elections alone in all 42 seats in the state.

Congress response

Congress leader Jairam Ramesh made the party’s displeasure clear in an X post.

“The Indian National Congress has repeatedly declared its desire to have a respectable seat-sharing agreement with the TMC in West Bengal. The Indian National Congress has always maintained that such an agreement has to be finalised through negotiations and not by unilateral announcements. The Indian National Congress has always wanted the INDIA group to fight the BJP together,” read the post.

“Doors open”

Congress and TMC leaders have been engaged in a war of words over seat-sharing in West Bengal, with the Mamata Banerjee-led party asserting that it cannot offer more than two seats to the Congress. The Congress has only two MPs from West Bengal — Adhir Chowdhury and Abu Hasem Khan Choudhury in Malda South.

The Congress maintains that its “doors are open” for an alliance until the withdrawal of nominations. “Our doors are always open and an alliance can happen any time before withdrawal,” Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said over the development.

(With agency inputs)