Mamata breaks ties with Congress, AAP to contest alone in Punjab; rift in INDIA bloc

NEW DELHI: The Congress and the INDIA bloc suffered a double blow as the Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo Mamata Banerjee and Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann announced that there will be no alliance with the Congress for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections and that their parties TMC and AAP will contest alone in the respective states.

Mamata openly said that the Trinamool Congress would not have an alliance with Congress in West Bengal. Mamata made the shocking announcement as Rahul Gandhi's Bharat Jodo Nyaya Yatra is about to enter West Bengal today. She also clarified that a pan-India alliance with the Congress will be considered only after the results of the Lok Sabha elections are declared. The Congress had not informed Mamata about Rahul's journey. She said that the Congress should have informed her about this at least in the name of common courtesy. Meanwhile, AICC leaders Jairam Ramesh and KC Venugopal said that the Congress will continue its alliance with Mamata's party and resolve minor disputes.

Rahul Gandhi said the other day that the Congress has a good relationship with Mamata and that the seat discussion was going on. Mamata bluntly asserted that Rahul's intervention had no impact on the talks. Mamata was also provoked by West Bengal Congress leader and Lok Sabha MP Adhir Ranjan Chaudhary's remark that Mamata was an opportunist. Adhir said that the Congress will not plead for the seat and will win without Trinamool's help.

Dominance of regional parties should be acknowledged

1. Mamata is of the view that in states dominated by regional parties, those parties should contest in the majority of seats and the Congress, which cannot exert any influence, should not interfere. Mamata also said that the Congress should contest 300 seats in other states where it will have a direct conflict with the BJP.

2. Mamata had promised to give two seats to Congress out of 42 seats in Bengal. Meanwhile, Congress and CPM are hoping to win more seats this time. Congress wants six seats. The current seat standings are Trinamool-22, BJP-18 and Congress-2. In 2019, Congress had formed an alliance with the CPM.

3. Punjab Chief Minister and AAP leader Bhagwant Singh Mann said that his party will not ally with the Congress in Punjab and that the Aam Aadmi Party will win all 13 seats alone. Although an understanding was reached in the AAP to give three out of seven seats to the Congress in Delhi, the state unit of the party in Punjab is against the alliance with Congress. The two parties will ally in Gujarat. They will also contest as a front in the Chandigarh mayoral election.