Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo Mamata Banerjee has vowed to contest the upcoming Lok Sabha polls alone from West Bengal without any seat sharing agreement with Congress.
"I have always said that in Bengal, we will fight alone. I am not concerned about what will be done in the country but we are a secular party and in Bengal, we will alone defeat BJP," she said as per ANI.
The TMC leader continued that she had had no discussions with I.N.D.I.A partner Congress. She added that though she is part of the alliance, nobody from the grand old party informed them of the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra passing through West Bengal.
The announcement comes a day after a closed door organisational meeting in Birbhum district, where the CM urged the party leaders to prepare for contesting the elections alone and not to think about seat sharing talks, according to PTI.
A senior TMC leader told PTI, "Our party supremo clearly said that we don't need to think about seat-sharing talks with the Congress. She said that the party had offered two seats to them. But the Congress at times is demanding 10-12 seats."
Recently there had been a rift among the I.N.D.I.A bloc allies over seat sharing at the state level.
The TMC supremo had criticised the Congress for delaying the discussion about seat sharing in West Bengal, citing an 'unjustified' demand for 10-12 Lok Sabha constituencies whereas, the TMC was willing to offer only two seats to the Congress.
West Bengal Congress Chief Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, targeting TMC and Banerjee, called the CM an 'opportunist' and that the Congress would not fight the elections at her mercy.
Chowdhury's criticism was dismissed by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi who said that Banerjee is 'very close' to him.
Gandhi, meanwhile, said, "The negotiations on seat-sharing are underway. I don't want to comment here. But Mamata Banerjee is very close to me and our party. Sometimes our leaders say something, their leaders say something, and it goes on. It's a natural thing. Such comments won't matter, and these are not going to disrupt things."
On January 22, when the entire nation was celebrating the consecration ceremony of the Ram temple, Banerjee began an all-faith harmony rally in Kolkata on the same day.
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