West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
Credit: PTI Photo
Kolkata: The Trinamool Congress is unlikely to join the Rahul Gandhi-led 'Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra' when it enters West Bengal on January 25, a senior party leader said on Wednesday.
The Yatra, currently in Assam, is scheduled to enter West Bengal through Bakshirhat in Cooch Behar district on January 25. After a recess of two days –January 26-27, it will be traversing Jalpaiguri, Alipurduar, Uttar Dinajpur and Darjeeling before reaching Bihar on January 29.
It will re-enter West Bengal on January 31 through Malda and travel via Murshidabad, both strongholds of the Congress, before leaving the state on February 1.
"We haven't received a formal invitation from the Congress. And even if we receive it we are most unlikely to join it," the senior TMC leader told PTI.
The development came amid the growing animosity between both the parties – TMC and Congress - the I.N.D.I.A bloc alliance partners over seat sharing in West Bengal.
TMC leaders, including Banerjee, have maintained that it is their party which is taking on the BJP in West Bengal.
On Tuesday, Banerjee at an internal party meeting had criticised the Congress for causing delays in seat-sharing discussions in West Bengal within the I.N.D.I.A bloc, citing unjustified demands for 10-12 seats when the TMC is willing to share only two.
Senior state Congress leader Pradip Bhattacharya said the party has sent invites to all INDIA bloc partners, "Now it is up to TMC to decide on whether they will join the yatra or not."
The TMC's offer of two seats based on Congress's 2019 Lok Sabha election performance was deemed insufficient, escalating the tension between the two parties.
In the 2019 elections, TMC secured 22 seats, Congress won two, and the BJP secured 18 seats in the state.
The TMC had allied with the Congress in the 2001 assembly polls, 2009 Lok Sabha elections, and the 2011 assembly polls. The alliance ousted the CPI(M)-led Left Front government of 34 years in the 2011 polls.