West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee reiterated her party’s allegiance to the Opposition’s INDIA bloc on Thursday, dispelling any notions of a split. This clarification came a day after her statement about the Trinamool Congress (TMC) providing external support to form a central government, raising speculations about the TMC’s commitment to the alliance. Banerjee emphasized that while her party remains firmly within the INDIA bloc in Delhi, there is no local alliance with the Congress or the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI(M)) in Bengal.
During an election rally in Haldia, Mamata Banerjee accused the Congress and CPI(M) of collaborating with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to divide opposition votes in Bengal. She urged the electorate not to support these parties in the state, reiterating that TMC’s alignment with the INDIA bloc is intact at the national level. “Attempts by the Congress and CPI(M), fuelled by BJP funds, to divide votes should be resisted. Do not vote for them here. I’ve made it clear that there’s no alliance in Bengal, but we are aligned in Delhi. We will remain so,” she declared. She also stated that she was instrumental in founding the INDIA alliance and would continue to support it, aiming to quash any misunderstandings regarding TMC’s position.
In contrast, Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury expressed skepticism about Banerjee’s intentions, accusing her of abandoning the alliance. Chowdhury suggested that Mamata Banerjee could align with the BJP, pointing to her previous statements undermining the Congress’s electoral prospects. “I don’t trust her. She left the alliance and ran away. She can also go towards the BJP… They were talking about destroying the Congress party and that Congress would not get more than 40 seats but now she is saying that it means that the Congress party and the alliance are coming to power,” Chowdhury remarked.
Banerjee also took the opportunity to criticize the BJP for the controversial outcome of the Nandigram seat in the 2021 Assembly elections, where she lost to her former aide-turned-BJP candidate Suvendu Adhikari by a narrow margin. She accused the BJP, with the Election Commission’s help, of manipulating the election results through administrative changes and orchestrating a power outage on polling day. Banerjee vowed to seek justice, asserting that the outcome did not reflect the will of Nandigram’s people and promising to challenge it legally. “With the assistance of the Election Commission of India, the BJP changed the District Magistrate and Superintendent of Police. On polling day, they orchestrated a power outage, leading to a change in the results. I will seek justice for this injustice, be it tomorrow or the future. BJP will not stay forever, nor will agencies like the CBI or ED. My case is still pending in court, and I will seek justice. This isn’t the verdict of the people of Nandigram,” she affirmed.
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