Feb 11, 2025 11:13 AM IST
Sena UBT leader Sanjay Raut said Mamata should have a dialogue with the Congress as the Congress is a major part of the INDIA bloc.
A day after West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee ruled out Trinamool Congress alliance with the Congress for the 2026 assembly election, Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut insisted that she should “continue to have dialogue” with the Congress.
The Trinamool Congress chief on Monday blamed the Aam Aadmi Party and the Congress for the failure of the Opposition in Delhi and Haryana assembly election, ruling out the possibility of having any alliance with the grand old party for the 2026 West Bengal election.
Mamata Banerjee also told her legislators and ministers that the TMC will win the 2026 poll on its own with a two-third majority in the 294-seat state assembly.
Sanjay Raut, a leader from Uddhav Thackeray’s Shiv Sena, noted that Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress has always contested Lok Sabha or Vidhan Sabha elections independently. However, he suggested that since the Congress is a huge part of the INDIA bloc, the TMC supremo “should always continue to have a dialogue with Congress”.
A minister from Banerjee’s meeting said, “The chief minister said the AAP did not help the Congress in the Haryana poll and the Congress did not help the AAP in the Delhi poll. She said such things are unacceptable. She said the Congress doesn’t exist in Bengal.”
She also warned the gathering that she won’t tolerate any infighting or factionalism within the TMC rank and file.
Banerjee also asked her party leaders to beware as the Bharatiya Janata Party might try to include foreigners’ names in the voter list to win the assembly polls.
In addition, Mamata Banerjee, known to have TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee as second-in-command, surprised her leaders by saying that she has no family.
“She said she has no family and the party and the people are her family,” a second MLA said.
The TMC chief reportedly informed at the meeting that she would reshuffle the party’s units from state-level to the booth level, and various wings.
She asked the MLAs to suggest three names to senior leader Arup Biswas by February 25 for selecting new office-bearers.
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