Lok Sabha 2024: Trinamool Congress to Contest in Uttar Pradesh

Trinamool Congress (TMC) will contest in a Lok Sabha seat in Uttar Pradesh, the decision has been arrived at after consulting with Samajwadi Party, claim sources. While the INDIA alliance talks so far has remained restricted to Congress and Samajwadi Party in the political landscape of Uttar Pradesh, the Trinamool Congress would be a surprise entrant, fighting from Chandauli Lok Sabha constituency.

The Chandauli seat has been a bastion of the Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP), but in the 2019 Lok Sabha election, amidst the peak popularity of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Samajwadi Party’s vote share had seen a massive jump by over 24 percent in this Lok Sabha constituency. The sitting MP of the Chandauli Lok Sabha constituency is Dr. Mahendra Nath Pandey of BJP who won the seat in both 2014 and 2019 elections. In 2014 Pandey won the seat after defeating BSP candidate Anil Kumar Maurya by a margin of over 1.5 lakh votes. But in 2019, SP candidate Sanjay Singh Chauhan was behind Pandey by less than 14,000 votes.

“TMC will be contesting from Chandauli seat in Uttar Pradesh, as has been agreed by both TMC and Samajwadi Party. Akhilesh Yadav has offered the seat to Mamata Banerjee and the offer has been accepted. Mamata Banerjee and Akhilesh Yadav share very good terms. She had announced during the 2022 UP assembly election that in the Lok Sabha battle she would want to field TMC candidates in Uttar Pradesh and Akhilesh Yadav has cordially agreed,” said a senior TMC leader on condition of anonymity, since the formal announcement is yet to be made.

While Congress and SP have become the principal players to take on BJP in Uttar Pradesh, with Akhilesh Yadav taking Mamata Banerjee along it could become a sign of TMC continuing with the INDIA alliance even after the public fall out between TMC and Congress in West Bengal. The TMC supremo upset with Congress asking for more seats in West Bengal had announced that her party will go solo in the state. Sources, however, claim that talks have resumed once again between TMC and Congress even though the former has stuck by its initial offer of two seats out off forty two to the grand old party. “We had offered Congress two seats but they wanted more. We have rejected that and thereafter there happened no fresh talks with us”, Mamata Banerjee had said on January 30 during a public meeting. Sources add that Congress in their renewed ask, has lowered their demand to five seats from their previous ask for eight seats.

Congress and Samajwadi Party have sealed their seat sharing deals for both Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh (MP). In Uttar Pradesh, Congress will be contesting in 17 out of 80 Lok Sabha seats and in Madhya Pradesh, Samajwadi Party has been given one seat while Congress will contest in the remaining 28 seats. Similarly, Congress and Arvind Kejriwal’s AAP have sealed their seat sharing arrangement for both Delhi and Goa, indicative of revival of the INDIA bloc following Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s exit from the alliance.