Amid growing resentment among party leaders in West Bengal over Trinamool Congress's unilateral announcement to contest 228 seats, senior Congress leaders met today to finalise candidates for the assembly elections.
Amid growing resentment among party leaders in West Bengal over Trinamool Congress's unilateral announcement to contest 228 seats, senior Congress leaders met today to finalise candidates for the assembly elections.
Party sources said that a large number of state leaders feel that the Congress should call the Trinamool Congress' "bluff" and should not accept the offer of the 64 seats made by Mamata Banerjee.
It is learnt that West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee chief Manas Bhuniya, who arrived here last night, has already finalised the candidates for the 90 assembly seats on which the Central leadership of the Congress has to take a final call.
A meeting of the party's screening committee for West Bengal chaired by Janardhan Poojari discussed the list of the candidates prepared by the PCC. Today's meeting was also attended by other screening committee members including Bhuniya, PJ Kurian and working committee member in-charge for West Bengal Shakeel Ahmad.
Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee had held with them over the issue last night.
Senior MP Adhir Ranjan Chaudhury had yesterday said that the Trinamool's unilateral announcement to the seats was an insult to Congress chief Sonia Gandhi. He had also alleged that the Mamata Banerjee's party wanted to marginalise Congress in West Bengal.
Another party MP Deepa Dasmunshi had earlier expressed reservations against "succumbing to the pressure of Trinamool Congress."
Sources in the party said although party Chief Sonia Gandhi has been strongly supporting the continuation of the alliance, the sudden announcement of seats by Banerjee had not gone down well with the Congress leadership.
Congress is likely to take a final decision on the issue of alliance in a day or two. Gandhi, who is in London, is expected to be back here tonight.
Trinamool Congress on Friday unilaterally announced its list of 228 candidates for the election to 294-member West Bengal Assembly and set a Monday deadline for Congress to accept the 64 seats allotted to it.
Banerjee had said, "We will be happy if Congress fields its candidates in 64 constituencies after seat adjustment. Else, we will announce our candidates in those seats by Monday."
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