GG News Bureau
New Delhi, 23rd Feb. The Congress party, riding high on recent seat-sharing pacts with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Samajwadi Party (SP), is now setting its sights on a third consecutive deal, this time with Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress in West Bengal.
Despite the challenges, talks between the Congress and Trinamool are back on track and progressing positively, according to party insiders. “If consensus is reached, an announcement will be made soon,” they disclosed.
While the Congress has significantly downsized its initial demand from eight to 14 seats, it continues to press for an additional seat in Bengal, up from Mamata Banerjee’s offer of two. The Trinamool chief had earlier rebuffed the Congress’s insistence on six seats, asserting her party’s dominance in the region.
Expressing her frustration, Mamata Banerjee emphasized, “I told Congress ‘You don’t have a single MLA here, I am offering two MP seats and we will ensure you win in those two seats.’ They said ‘No, we want more seats’. I said, ‘Now I’m not going to give a single seat’.”
Despite the stalemate, the Congress eyes seats currently held by the BJP, particularly in north Bengal, alongside those offered by Trinamool, including Berhampore and Malda South, won by Congress in 2019.
Potential seats of contention include Behrampur, Malda South, Malda North, Raiganj, and Darjeeling, with Purulia remaining a distant possibility.
With the intervention of central leadership, the Congress has swiftly finalized pending deals. Priyanka Gandhi Vadra has accepted the SP’s 17-seat offer in Uttar Pradesh, while a meeting at Rahul Gandhi’s residence has led to the broad outlines of seat-sharing with AAP in Delhi, Gujarat, Haryana, and Goa being determined.
