Assam TMC says seat-sharing chances with INDIA partners ‘slim’

Assam Trinamool Congress chief Ripun Bora Wednesday said the likelihood of aseat-sharing arrangement with the INDIA alliance in Assam is slim and the party is preparing to go ahead with fielding four of its own candidates for the Lok Sabha polls.

Despite the currently tenuous position of the All India Trinamool Congress in the INDIA alliance, the Assam Trinamool Congress (TMC) is also part of a Congress-led 16-party United Opposition Forum in Assam, which is currently putting up a join opposition in the state to the imminent notification of rules for the implementation of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act.

In December last year, there had been reports that the TMC had been eyeing four – Dhubri, Lakhimpur, Kokrajhar and Karimganj – out of the 14 Lok Sabha seats in Assam.

The first meeting of the Congress’s Central Election Committee to decide on candidates for the polls will be held Thursday.

TMC’s Ripun Bora, who left the Congress for the TMC in 2022, said the party would still wait to see if a seat-sharing arrangement could be arrived at but said “the possibility is very low”.

“If there is no seat sharing in West Bengal, then there will be no seat sharing here in Assam as well. We are hearing that the Assam Congress will release its list of candidates on March 8, but we have not had a final meeting to finalise a seat sharing arrangement. Since the chances seem to be low, we are preparing to contest with our own candidates. It’s very late in the day and there is no more time to wait,” Bora told The Indian Express.

In the last week of February, TMC leader Derek O’Brien had said that his party will be going solo in the upcoming polls. He said there was “no change” in the party’s stand of contesting all 42 Lok Sabha seats in West