The Congress High command is reportedly upset the way Railway Minister and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee today unilaterally announced her party’s candidate list for 228 seats leaving 64 seats for the Congress for the assembly polls scheduled to be held from April.
Top sources in the Congress described the situation as “very difficult” and indicated that the Congress wanted to renegotiate the seat distribution arrangement with its ally including “quality” and “quantity” of seats. Banerjee is the second largest ally of the UPA with 20 Lok Sabha MPs.
The Congress also made it clear that next round of initiatives for forging the alliance is likely to take place only after Gandhi returns from London. The Congress president is scheduled to arrive in New Delhi on Sunday.
Congress central leadership is even more disheartened because today it had requested Banerjee not to announce her candidates’ list and wait for Gandhi’s return. On Thursday evening and again on Friday afternoon, Banerjee was categorically requested not to go ahead. But the Railway Minister refused to wait further and stuck to her “deadline” for announcing her party’s candidates this afternoon.
Apart from putting aside 64 seats for the Congress, Trinamool has offered two seats for its local ally SUCI. The West bengal assembly consists of 294 seats. “We have kept aside 64 seats for the Congress and will be happy if it were to field its candidates in these constituencies after seat adjustment. If not, we will field candidates including members from minority communities on Monday," Banerjee said in a clear pressure tactics.
The Congress views this move as an insult to the party president’s personal request. The TMC supremo said that she was announcing the candidate list after discussions with the Congress central leadership till last night and was doing what had been “agreed upon there.”
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The Congress, however, refused to buy this argument and said nothing was final. While Trinamool camp claimed that deal was final, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Gandhi’s political secretary Ahmed Patel was still waiting to hear from the party president. Till early Friday morning, the Congress was waiting for Gandhi’s final signal while Trinamool camp believed the deal is sealed.
An angry Congress is believed to have asked its state unit to prepare a list of 90 candidates for the poll.
Some of the key faces that find space in her list include names like actress Debasree Roy, Ficci secretary general Amit Mitra (to contest from Khardah against Finance Minister Asheem Dasgupta), former IAS Manish Gupta, theatre personality Bratya Basu and dean of Uttar Banga Medical College, Rudra Prasad Banerjee.
Banerjee criticized delays caused by Congress.