‘Unilateral announcement,’ says Congress as Mamata Banerjee buries INDIA bloc hopes by naming all 42 Bengal candidates

The Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress on Sunday announced candidates for allin West Bengal, dealing a blow to the Congress party which had hoped to stich up an alliance with the party for upcoming Lok Sabha polls.

While , and her party colleagues, had long ago refuted any chances of alliance with the Congress, the grand-old-party had just a few days ago said that seat-sharing talks were still on.

"The Indian National Congress has repeatedly declared its desire to have a respectable seat-sharing agreement with the TMC in West Bengal. The Indian National Congress has always maintained that such an agreement has to be finalised through negotiations and not by unilateral announcements," Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said on X (formerly Twitter) soon after TMC list was released at a mega rally in Kolkata.

In fact, taking the contest to another level, the TMC fielded former cricketer , a seat that has been won by the Congress leader and West Bengal unit chief Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury five times. Though the Congress is yet to name its candidates for Bengal, Chowdhury is likely to seek a recontest from the seat.

“Mamata Banerjee has been saying that TMC is part of INDIA bloc. Yet she released the names. Let's see what happens, " Ramesh, General Secretary in-charge, communications, of the told news agency ANI later. 

Also Read :

TMC was said to have offered Baharampur and another seat to the Congress, but decided to go solo as the grand old party wanted a bigger share of seats.

Fielding Pathan, a popular former cricketer, from Chowdhury's stronghold is seen as Trinamool's response to the Congress leader's repeated attacks on the party. 

Pathan joined TMC on Sunday morning at the Kolkata rally.

In the , the TMC had won 22