TMC to contest all 42 seats in West Bengal; 'Congress rejected my proposals,' Mamata claims

Mamata Banerjee has announced that the Trinamool Congress (TMC) would contest all the 42 seats in the West Bengal Lok Sabha elections. This came as a setback to the Indian National Congress (INC) and Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI-M) who were alliance partners of the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (I.N.D.I.A). “I had no discussions with the Congress. I have always said that in Bengal, we will fight alone. I gave them (the Congress) many proposals... but they rejected them. I am not concerned about what will be done in the (rest of the) country... but we are a secular party and, in Bengal, we alone will defeat BJP. They are coming to my state... but did not have courtesy to inform me, even though I am part of the INDIA bloc. So there is no relationship with me, as far as Bengal is concerned. INDIA will be present in India (but) in Bengal the Trinamool Congress will fight. In Bengal it is only Trinamool that can teach the BJP a lesson. It can show the country the path to victory,” Mamamta Banerjee told reporters. 

Earlier, Mamata Banerjee’s proposal of providing 2 seats in the alliance to Congress was not well received by the West Bengal State Congress President Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury. “We will not contest the elections at the mercy of Mamata Banerjee. Congress knows how to contest elections on its own, and the two seats we have won (in 2019 Lok Sabha polls in West Bengal) were by defeating Mamata and BJP. Mamta is an opportunist; she herself came to power in 2011, with the mercy of Congress,” Chowdhury said.