Congress made unreasonable demands, delayed seat-sharing discussions: TMC sources
Mamata Banerjee announced her party will go it alone in the Lok Sabha polls in the state, TMC sources on Wednesday claimed the Congress delayed the talks and made unreasonable demands on seat-sharing without acknowledging the ground reality. The Trinamool Congress (TMC) is open to «courtesy back-channel» talks but there is hardly any hope left for reaching a pact, they said.
Maintaining that TMC had offered two Lok Sabha seats to the Congress in West Bengal, a senior party leader said it is open to discussing a third seat, provided Congress agrees to give the TMC seats in Meghalaya and Assam.
The TMC leader accused the Congress of causing «unreasonable delay» in seat-sharing discussions, saying no communication has happened in the last two weeks.
The leader also alleged that the Congress was making unreasonable demands in terms of the number of seats without acknowledging the ground reality of Bengal.
The TMC had suggested a formula for deciding seat sharing based on the results of previous elections, and the offer the party made to Congress was based on that criteria.
Much damage was also done due to the statements made by Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, who had recently called the West Bengal chief minister an 'opportunist' and also said that the Congress would fight the polls on its own, the sources said.
While the TMC has not announced exiting the INDIA grouping, the leader added that there is very little chance of seat sharing in the state with the Congress.
The TMC is also skipping the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra of the Congress, even as the Communist Party of India (Marxist) is likely to attend it.
