The announcement coincides with rumors that the Congress party would shortly complete negotiations with TMC regarding seat sharing. Derek O’Brien, the leader of the Trinamool Congress, reaffirmed his party’s position on Friday that it will stand alone in the upcoming West Bengal Lok Sabha elections. According to the TMC chief, the party’s stance on running for all 42 Lok Sabha seats in West Bengal, a few in Assam, and one in Meghalaya has not changed. The statement was made in the midst of rumors that the Congress party has reopened negotiations for an alliance in the state with the TMC, led by Mamata Banerjee.
Mamata Banerjee, the chief minister of West Bengal, declared a few weeks ago that the TMC is vying for all 42 seats in Bengal. We are also contesting several seats in Assam and the Meghalaya Tura Lok Sabha seat. Derek O’Brien said that this position has not changed. The TMC had earlier on Friday claimed that it would run alone in the April-May local elections, but the Congress later said that the seat-sharing negotiations among the party and TMC were back on track. The Samajwadi Party and the Congress have recently formalized their alliance in Uttar Pradesh. The Samajwadi Party will run for 63 seats and the Congress for 17 of the 80 Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh.
The Congress party is going to contest in Raebareli, Amethi, Fatehpur Sikri, Saharanpur, Prayagraj, Maharajganj, Varanasi, Amroha, Jhansi, Bulandshahar, Ghaziabad, Mathura, Sitapur, Barabanki, Kanpur, Bansgaon, and Deoria. The remainder are under SP’s care.
The party is allied with Sharad Pawar’s NCP and Uddhav Balasheb Thackrey’s Sena in Maharashtra. Congress and its INDIA bloc collaborator in the state are currently in negotiations to finalize LS seats. AAP is expected to contest four of Delhi’s seven Lok Sabha seats, while the Congress is expected to contest three.
Last month, Mamata Banerjee claimed that the Congress had rejected her offer, which was the reason why the negotiations had broken down. She also mentioned the wait times for completing a seat-sharing arrangement. She also promised that she would not form an alliance with the Congress until it did so with her fierce rival, the CPI (M). Adhir Ranjan Chowdhary, the leader of the Congress, had said that the TMC had only offered his party two seats. Subsequently, Derek O’Brien stated that the politician was a primary factor in the party’s choice to run for the Lok Sabha seat on its own.
