New Delhi: After Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee announced Wednesday that she would have no tie-up with the Congress in West Bengal for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, Punjab Chief Minister Bhangwant Mann declared that his Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) – which is also in power in Delhi – would contest all 13 seats in Punjab.
“How many times will you make me say this? In the 2024 elections, it will be 13-0 in favour of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP),” Mann told the media Wednesday.
AAP and TMC were both Congress allies as part of the Opposition’s INDIA bloc. While Banerjee added that she would take a decision about her party’s stand at the national level after the Lok Sabha elections, Mann did not specify on AAP’s position on the INDIA alliance at the national level.
Before coming to power in Punjab Assembly with a majority in 2022, AAP had won one of the state’s 13 parliamentary constituencies in the 2019 general elections. The Congress had won eight, the Shiromani Akali Dal – then part of the BJP-led NDA alliance – bagged two and the BJP had won two.
Mann’s comments came moments after Banerjee said she would go “walk alone” in Bengal, after seat-sharing talks hit a roadblock, according to party sources. Trinamool sources had earlier told ThePrint that the party which is in power in West Bengal, was ready to give the Congress two seats that it had won in 2019, while the national party wanted to contest nine to 12 seats.
On the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra with Rahul Gandhi Wednesday, Congress leader Jairam Ramesh when asked about Banerjee’s sudden announcement, said, “Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge, Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi respect Mamata a lot. I believe speed-breakers sometimes surface in a long journey, but we will find a solution through discussion.”
He added that Banerjee’s priority was to defeat the BJP, and with that same intention, the Congress’s second outreach yatra would enter Cooch Behar in West Bengal Thursday.
Mann, however, refused to comment on Banerjee’s decision.
The decision by the two INDIA allies is likely to derail seat-sharing talks for the upcoming elections.
In Uttar Pradesh too, there are reports of intense wrangling between the Congress and main Opposition Samajwadi Party (SP) over the number of seats that the national party will contest from the country’s biggest state.
While keeping the Congress on tenterhooks, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav recently announced a seven-seat alliance with Jayant Chaudhary’s Rashtriya Lok Dal which enjoys support in western Uttar Pradesh.
Also read: Jolt to INDIA bloc as Mamata says no tie-up with Congress in Bengal for Lok Sabha polls