Abhishek Banerjee Attacks Congress' "Seat-Share Aspirations In Bengal" Citing Lower Than TMC Vote Share In Assam's NC Hills

Trinamool Congress (TMC) seems to be drifting apart from the Congress-led INDI Alliance. Hours after Mamata Banerjee's absence at the virtual meeting of the opposition bloc on Saturday (13 January), her nephew Abhishek Banerjee hit out at Congress.

Talking about the North Cachar Hills Autonomous Council (NCHAC) elections in Assam, Abhishek Banerjee wrote on X that despite contesting these elections for the first time, TMC "managed a higher vote share than INC – the primary opposition."

He further attacked the Congress over the now stalled seat-sharing discussions and said, "One might say their seat-share aspirations in Bengal are akin to aiming for the stars when they couldn't quite grasp the ground in their own backyard!"

Abhishek shared data from NCHAC elections where both TMC and Congress won zero seats but TMC's vote share was 12.4 per cent, while that of Congress was 8.87 per cent. The BJP won maximum seats here with 55.52 per cent votes.

This comes days after the TMC refused to meet the Congress' five-member national alliance committee, which is responsible for negotiating seat-sharing agreements with other parties of INDI Alliance.

The refusal comes in the backdrop of TMC proposing only two seats for Congress within INDI Alliance. These two seats are of Maldaha Dakshni and Baharampur, both of which the Congress holds currently.

However, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, the Bengal Congress president, was not keen on accepting this proposal and asserted that his party doesn't require Banerjee's pity and is capable of securing more seats independently.