Mamata Banerjee fact-checks Rahul Gandhi, confirms no alliance in Bengal but Didi keeps door open for INDIA post-election

“No alliance in Bengal”, West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday confirmed what was so far in the realms of speculations. Dismissing what senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said on Tuesday, Mamata Banerjee has claimed that talks with Congress have failed to progress any further after they had rejected her initial proposal of seat sharing for Bengal.

“It is completely false. There is no talk with Congress over seat sharing. We have decided that TMC will go alone and have no alliance as far as Bengal is concerned. We had proposed a seat sharing and after they had rejected that, there have been no further talks with us”, said Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday as a response to Rahul Gandhi's claims that he made on Tuesday during his Barat Jodo Nyay Yatra that talks are still on with TMC. Gandhi had even said that he shares great ties with Mamata Banerjee. “I personally and the Congress party share very good relation with Mamata Banerjee. Sometimes someone from our party says something and sometimes someone from their party. But that shouldn’t affect our terms. Seat sharing talks are on with TMC” Rahul Gandhi had said in Assam on Tuesday.

He had even claimed that all partner parties part of the INDIA alliance were invited for the yatra as and when it crossed their respective states. But debunking that, Mamata Banerjee has publicly expressed her dismay that she wasn’t either informed or invited to the Bengal chapter of the yatra. “ As a matter of courtesy, since we are part of the INDIA bloc, they should have at least informed me about their plans for their yatra in Bengal. They have not invited us”, she added.

This now confirms the breakdown of the INDIA alliance as far as the state of Bengal is concerned. TMC had since the second alliance meeting in Bangalore been demanding that the sharing process be completed at the earliest, expecting the unavoidable hurdles. The TMC supremo however hasn’t closed her doors for the INDIA alliance, leaving room for possibilities in a post-election scenario. “What happens to the INDIA alliance, we will see later after the election. We are a secular party and we will do everything needed to defeat BJP” she said before leaving for an administrative meeting in Burdwan.