TMC move to go it alone in Bengal LS Polls

The Trinamool Congress would like to go it alone in all the 42 seats in West Bengal in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, said Union Minister of State for Health Sudip Bandopadhyay in New Delhi on Monday.

“In the next Lok Sabha elections, Bengal will have 42 seats and we want to fight and command in all those seats,” said Bandopadhyay.

The TMC MP’s comments came a fortnight after party chief Mamata Banerjee said that they wanted to remain in alliance with the Congress at the national level. The TMC has already decided to go it alone in the panchayat polls.

“We had an alliance in Delhi; we still have it and it will last till we can work with self-respect. But in Bengal, TMC will fight alone, alone, alone,” Mamata had said, while addressing the Martyrs’ Day rally on July 21.

While the West Bengal Chief Minister did say that the party would contest alone in the state, political circles felt that she was alluding to the panchayat polls alone. But Didi may well have other plans up her sleeve with Bandopadhyay even saying that Mamata topped the list of honest politicians suited for the Prime Minister’s job.

“People want an honest, clean, hardworking and talented person as Prime Minister. Mamata Banerjee tops the list,” Bandopadhyay said, while reacting to BJP leader L K Advani’s comment that 2014 could see a non-Congress, non-BJP Prime Minister.

The West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee (WBPCC), however, remained undeterred with the new development. “If a political party says they want to fight polls alone, we have no problem. As far as Bengal is concerned, we have nothing to worry or fear.  We want to remind them (TMC) that in the last Lok Sabha polls, they contested alone and got only one seat,” Pradip Bhattacharya, president, WBPCC, told Express. He added that a final decision in this regard would be taken by the Congress central leadership.

When asked about PM comment, Bhattacharya said: “Anyone can say that they want a certain person to be PM. But that will be decided only later, according to election results and numbers.”

The TMC and the WBPCC have shared an acrimonious relationship ever since Mamata assumed office.