"Support To INDI Alliance From Outside In Delhi; Bengal Congress, CPI(M) Not With Us": Mamata Banerjee On Opposition Bloc

After distancing herself from the INDI Alliance over the seat-sharing arrangement, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday (15 May) explained the Opposition bloc in a new way.

She said that the Trinamool Congress (TMC) "will provide leadership to the INDIA alliance, and help them in every way from outside" and clarified this support is for Delhi.

"You must know that the INDIA Alliance -- don't count the Bengal Congress and CPI(M), those two are not with us. Those two are with the BJP. I am talking about Delhi," she added.

This comes a couple of weeks after West Bengal Congress president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury asked the people to vote for BJP if not Congress but not Banerjee-led TMC.

Banerjee and Chowdhury are known to be at loggerheads. Chowdhury even raised the Sandeskhali issue where local TMC leaders are accused of sexual assault and land grab.

The West Bengal CM's rivalry with the CPI(M) is decades old as she came to power by defeating the Left government in the state and even faced assaults while she was in the Opposition.

"We will form a government so that in Bengal our mothers and sisters never face a problem and those who work in the 100-days-job scheme, do not face problems," Banerjee said.

Earlier, she had offered two of the 42 Lok Sabha seats in West Bengal for the Congress to contest. After the refusal of this proposal, the Left and Congress are in an alliance and TMC is contesting alone.