Decode Politics: Why Mamata Banerjee has served Congress an ultimatum

Reluctance to let go of her supremacy in West Bengal, reservations regarding the CPI(M) as an alliance partner, disillusionment with the Congress and, more importantly, concerns regarding its minority vote bank – all seem to have played a part in Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee hardening her stance on the INDIA alliance.

While the seat-sharing in Bengal was never expected to be easy, and there were voices from all sides needling the other, the Chief Minister suggested Wednesday that the doors to talks with the Congress were closed, and that the issue of national alliance would now be decided only after the elections.

The Congress adamance

Indicating the thinking within the TMC, a senior party leader and MP said that the party expected the BJP to get a massive boost from the grand show around the Ram Temple in Ayodhya, atop its recent Assembly wins in the Hindi heartland states.

“At this moment, there is need for a joint effort against the BJP, for which our party chief has been trying for months. But no one is listening to her… Her proposal of 2 seats to the Congress in Bengal was rejected. Her initial proposal that the Congress contest 300 seats and the regional parties field candidates in the rest also got no response. What is the point in being in such an alliance, where one party does not seem serious enough to take on the BJP?” the leader said, adding that the Congress should not forget that “Mamata Didi stopped the BJP in its tracks in the Assembly polls (2021)”.

The TMC leader also accused the Congress of showing highhandedness and “undermining an important leader like Mamata Banerjee”, claiming they had not called her for an INDIA meeting, nor invited or informed her about the Bengal leg of Rahul Gandhi’s