The infighting between the parties in the I.N.D.I. Alliance over the seat sharing for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections is underway. On Saturday (13th January), TMC leader Abhishek Banerjee mocked Congress for its poor performance in Assam’s North Cachar Hills Autonomous Council election results.
He said that Congress aspiring to get more seat share in West Bengal is like aiming for stars when that party could not save its so-called stronghold in neighbouring state Assam.
Abhishek Banerjee posted from his X handle, “Despite contesting NCHAC elections for the first time the Assam unit of the TMC managed a higher vote share than INC – the primary opposition. One might say their seat share aspirations in Bengal are akin to aiming for the stars when they couldn’t quite grasp the ground in their backyard!”
In a chart attached to this post, Abhishek Banerjee showed how Congress lost all the 22 seats it fought in the NCHAC elections with a vote share of 8.87 per cent in the contested seats; while TMC lost all the 11 seats it fought in the same elections with a vote share of 12.40 per cent. Notably, the BJP won 19 out of 22 seats in this election with a vote share of more than 55 per cent.
On 7th January, the I.N.D.I. alliance fixed their seat-sharing formula for Bihar. JDU and RJD will fight for 17 seats each. Congress will contest 4 seats in Bihar while 2 seats are given to left parties. The seat-sharing formula of the opposition alliance in other states has not worked out yet. In big states like Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal, the Congress is expecting more seats than the regional parties as it considers itself a national challenger to the BJP.
However, regional parties like Samajwadi Party, RLD, and TMC are not ready to give Congress the space it expects. These parties are even citing vote shares in assembly as well as local body polls to support their stand. Even while citing data from the local body elections, they forget that the BJP is already getting the majority of votes which makes the difference between the vote shares of the other parties practically meaningless.
Earlier on 4th January, Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury claimed that Mamata Banerjee did not want an alliance with the Congress party and that his party could fight in the coming Lok Sabha election on its own. Trinamool Congress has offered 2 Lok Sabha seats to its I.N.D.I.A. bloc ally Congress party in West Bengal. Notably, it will be a slight climb down from the TMC side after earlier stating that they want to fight on all 42 seats in Bengal.