While reiterating party supremo Mamata Banerjee’s position that the TMC would fight alone in the next year's Assembly elections in West Bengal, the party’s national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee on Thursday hinted at keeping the door open for discussions. “In Bengal, we have categorically stated that we are with the INDIA bloc for the larger interest. However, if Congress does not wish to explore any way forward or engage in seat-sharing, we will contest alone. Didi (Mamata Banerjee) has already made it clear that we will fight alone in Bengal. This is nothing new. We fought alone in 2014, 2016, 2019, and 2024, and won. We will do so again,” Abhishek, who is considered number two in the TMC, said. On Monday, Mamata had told her MLAs that the Congress was not in a position of strength in West Bengal to spoil TMC’s chances of winning the next year’s elections in the state. “Here in West Bengal, Congress is not a factor. In Delhi, Congress can spoil the journey of AAP. But here they can’t. We will fight alone in the coming Assembly election and we will win more than two-thirds seats. Here nobody is a factor and can’t take away our votes. We will easily win in 2026,” the TMC chief had asserted. Abhishek also said that the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) lost in Delhi as it “failed to counter BJP’s false narratives”. Speaking at a health camp, “Sevasray”, in Satgachhia area of his Lok Sabha constituency Diamond Harbour, the TMC MP said: “They (AAP) failed to establish that the elected government of Delhi was not allowed to function… The BJP created the narrative that (AAP chief and former CM) Arvind Kejriwal has done nothing in the past five years and was successful in establishing it.” Abhishek’s comment on AAP’s loss in Delhi comes days after TMC supremo and his aunt, Mamata Banerjee, had accused the Congress of not helping AAP in Delhi against the BJP. “The Congress should have been more flexible during seat adjustment (with AAP) in Delhi. Similarly, in Haryana, AAP was rigid against forging an alliance with Congress. As a result, both Haryana and Delhi were won by the BJP,” she was quoted as saying to TMC legislators on Monday. According to Abhishek, the TMC government has been able to nullify BJP’s similar strategy in West Bengal. “(The BJP) attempted a similar strategy in West Bengal with central funds. They claimed to have released funds while alleging that the Trinamool was taking them away. We reached out to 50 lakh people and demanded a white paper from the Centre to substantiate their claims. Their lies were exposed. If you imprison the Chief Minister and other Ministers, how will they work with their hands tied,” Abhishek asked, referring to the arrest of Arvind Kejriwal and Deputy CM Manish Sisodia. “In Bengal, the BJP ministers claimed they had provided funds for MGNREGA, but we informed people that the Centre had halted the funds, not us. We took people to Delhi, where we were attacked. We told them that we had not blocked their funds. Consequently, the people delivered a fitting response to the BJP. They (AAP) should learn from this defeat and strengthen their position,” Banerjee said. On whether Congress and AAP, both constituents of the INDIA bloc would have formed an alliance in Delhi, Abhishek said: “This is an internal matter (of AAP and the INC). Whether alone or in an alliance, it depends on public support. A few seats might have been affected. The people of Delhi believed a change was necessary.” Though the TMC, Congress, and the Left parties are part of the INDIA bloc, Congress and Left fought against the TMC in last year’s Lok Sabha elections in Bengal. The TMC scored an emphatic victory, winning 29 of the total 42 Lok Sabha seats in West Bengal, while the Congress won one.
