Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee on Friday unilaterally announced candidates for 228 constituencies for the Assembly elections in West Bengal, leaving 64 seats for the Congress.
She also asked the Congress to announce its candidates for the 64 seats by Sunday, failing which she would name her party candidates for these seats as well.
“I have waited for 18 days since the talks started just because I am in favour of the alliance. Had there been no time limit, I would have waited till eternity — but a lot of paperwork is involved. If it was possible, I would have waited till the counting day on May 13. But we have certain limitations and, so, after waiting for a long time, I am announcing our list,” said Mamata.
“The TMC is a very disciplined party and our list of 294 candidates has been ready for a long time. This list has the names of 228 candidates only. If the Congress does not come to ground level, then we will declare the names of 64 more candidates on Monday. With that, the number of minority community and women candidates from TMC will rise to 64 and 45 respectively,” she said. The party list announced on Friday has 42 candidates from the minority community and 34 women.
The Congress, on its part, said it would discuss the issue and decide whether to contest 64 seats or more. “The announcement of seats by Mamata is unilateral. We will discuss in the Congress and then decide whether to contest 64 or more seats,” said Shakil Ahmed, AICC member and the party’s observer for West Bengal.
While saying that the party is still open to discussion, he added that the Congress would have to contest all 294 seats if there was no alliance. “There is enough time, the first day of nominations for the first phase is March 24 and the last day for the first phase is March 31,” he said.
Friday’s announcement gave ammunition to a section of Congress leaders opposed to the alliance. “It is a humiliating decision,” said Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, Congress MP from Murshidabad.
Won’t accept only two seats, says angry SUCI
Besides the Congress, even the Socialist Unity Centre of India (SUCI), a smaller ally of the Trinamool Congress, is unhappy with unilateral manner in which Mamata Banerjee announced her candidates’ list. The SUCI has been seeking 12 seats, but the Trinamool has left only two for the party.
“How can we comment on the matter when we have not even been offically informed? We came to know of it through the media. Let them first inform us properly, and then after having a proper discussion and negotiation with them, we will be able to decide what we are going to do,” said SUCI state secretary Soumen Bose.
SUCI had initially demanded 17 seats, but later scaled it down to 12. “Even during the last discussion we had with Mukul Roy on March 16, we were given no hint of the fact that we will be given just two seats,” said Bose. “Two seats is not acceptable.”
No comments:
Post a Comment