West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, on Monday, informed party legislators, that Trinamool Congress will be contesting alone in the Bengal Assembly elections in 2026 without having any understanding with another party including Congress.
She told party legislators while having a meeting with the members of the party’s legislative team in the West Bengal Assembly before the commencement of the first day of the budget session of the house on Monday afternoon.
“Congress has nothing in West Bengal. So there is no question of having an alliance with Congress in the state. Trinamool Congress will be contesting alone in West Bengal. We will form the government again for the fourth time in 2016 securing a two-thirds majority,” the Chief Minister said at the meeting as claimed by a senior member of the state cabinet.
However, the state cabinet member added that during the meeting the Chief Minister had squarely blamed Congress for the result of the recently concluded Delhi Assembly polls where BJP came to power winning 48 out of 70 seats in the state assembly there.
“In Delhi, Congress did not help the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). Again in Haryana AAP did not help Congress. As a result, BJP emerged as the victor in both the states. Had Congress and AAP remained united in Delhi and Haryana, the results would not have been such for the opposition in both the states,” the state cabinet minister said quoting Mamata Banerjee.
During the meeting, the Chief Minister also reportedly cautioned some of the party legislators whose recent statements made in public had posed immense embarrassment for the party leadership.
The state cabinet member said that the Chief Minister cautioned the leaders on this count that the same mistake repeated again and again cannot be pardoned. Recently, a comment by one such maverick legislator Madan Mitra, claiming that becoming a member of the party’s district committee against money is quite common, had posed immense embarrassment for the leadership.
Although Mitra had already written a letter to the party’s state president in West Bengal Subrata Bakshi apologising for making such a public statement, the party leadership feels that it is high time to caution such loose tongues to be careful in future.
The Chief Minister also gave a strong note of caution against reported events of infighting between two factions of the party mainly at the district- levels. “She specially cautioned the party legislators from Malda and West Burdwan districts,” a legislator present at the meeting said.
