As Nitish blows cold, Congress hopes to thaw Mamata to secure INDIA alliance

With more bad news coming in from the Bihar front, where JD(U) supremo Nitish Kumar seemed on the verge of returning to the NDA fold, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge Thursday reached out to Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee to find a solution to the seat-sharing impasse in the state.

The Congress was left alarmed by Mamata’s announcement Wednesday that no INDIA seat-sharing talks were on in Bengal and that the TMC would contest the Lok Sabha polls alone in the state, while adding that the regional parties were holding together.

Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh told The Indian Express that Kharge got in touch with Mamata on Thursday to find a way forward. Refusing to share the details, Ramesh only said the objective of Mamata as well as the INDIA alliance was similar – “to defeat the BJP in Bengal and outside”.

Sources said Kharge also sent a letter to Mamata inviting her to join Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra at some point during its course through Bengal – a reaction to her claim that the Congress did not even inform her about it. Kharge, Rahul and everyone in the party would be “just delighted and privileged to have her as part of the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra, even if it is for a few minutes”, Ramesh told PTI, indicating the Congress’s desperation to get the TMC back on board.

However, indicating that the TMC will continue to play hard ball, the party on Thursday attacked Congress West Bengal unit chief Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury as singularly responsible for the failure of the seat-sharing talks. “Three reasons for the alliance not working in Bengal – Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury and Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury,” senior TMC leader Derek O’Brien told reporters.

Not helping matters, Chowdhury