Meghalaya Trinamool Congress leader Dr. Mukul Sangma today blames the Congress for going ahead with the announcement of Lok Sabha candidates from Meghalaya which led to fissures in the INDIA bloc.
Dr. Sangma’s reaction came after Congress leader Jairam Ramesh slammed the Trinamool Congress for its alleged haste in announcing all 42 candidates for West Bengal.
“We have waited long enough. I think one can see the whole country has been observing us waiting patiently,” Dr. Sangma said.
According to him, there was a collective intent to have a single candidate from the INDIA bloc “to ensure that we put our strength collectively and aggregate our strength”.
“But this has not happened,” he added.
“Now if Congress today says that Trinamool Congress has not waited and gone ahead with the announcement of all the 42 candidates in West Bengal, I think they should be reminded of the fact that the Congress is not probably not grounded with what is happening on ground zero. Is it not a fact that they have gone ahead and announced the candidature in respect of Meghalaya where there are two seats – Shillong and Tura?” Dr. Sangma asked.
The opposition INDIA bloc’s attempt at seat sharing to ensure one-on-one contests against the BJP failed as the Trinamool Congress today announced its list of 42 candidates for the Lok Sabha polls in West Bengal, including two seats that the Congress won in 2019.
The moves for opposition unity under the INDIA bloc ahead of the Lok Sabha elections fell through in Meghalaya as the Congress party last week went ahead in announcing candidates for the Shillong and Tura parliamentary seats.
Although both Congress and Trinamool Congress were part of the INDIA bloc, they failed to agree on seat sharing in Meghalaya.
The Congress high command officially on March 8 released the first list of candidates for the Lok Sabha polls expected to be held in April-May this year.
As per the list for Meghalaya, sitting MP Vincent H. Pala will contest from the Shillong seat while party MLA Saleng A. Sangma will contest from Tura seat.
The first list of Congress candidates includes nominees for constituencies in Nagaland, Sikkim, Tripura, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Kerala and Telangana.
The Trinamool Congress had earlier demanded the Tura seat which comprises 24 Assembly constituencies since the party did well in Garo Hills region than the Congress in the 2023 Assembly elections.
The Trinamool Congress argued that it won five Assembly seats in Meghalaya, four of which are from Garo Hills. It also said that it was the runner-up in ten seats. The party also stated that Congress did not win any seat from Garo Hills.
Further, the Trinamool Congress stated that its vote share in several Assembly seats in Garo Hills was much more than that of the Congress and that is why it wanted to contest from the Tura seat.
However, with today’s announcement of the first list of candidates, both Congress and Trinamool Congress are set to contest against each other in both Shillong and Tura seats.
On March 7, the Trinamool Congress announced the formation of its election committee in Meghalaya with State party president Charles Pyngrope as chairman and party MLA Miani D. Shira as secretary.
The nine-member committee has been set up to prepare for the upcoming parliamentary elections.
