West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Mamata Banerjee announced on Monday that she would not attend the INDIA bloc meeting scheduled for June 1. Her decision stems from the last phase of the Lok Sabha elections and the ongoing relief efforts following Cyclone Remal, which struck the state’s coastal regions.
According to sources, Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge has convened a meeting of the INDIA bloc leaders on June 1, coinciding with the final round of polling.
Addressing an election rally in Kolkata, Ms Mamata Banerjee explained her absence, citing the critical elections in the state on that day.
“The INDIA bloc meeting has been fixed for June 1. But I have already stated that I can’t go on June 1 as there is an election in our state on that day. As far as I know, there are also elections in Punjab, UP, and Bihar. Voting will continue until 6 pm, and sometimes it extends beyond that,” she said.
Ms. Mamata Banerjee emphasized the dual challenges of post-cyclone relief work and ongoing elections, underscoring her priority towards the relief efforts.
“How can I leave everything behind and go? My priority is relief work. Even if I am holding a meeting here, my heart goes out to those people affected by the cyclone,” she said at the Kolkata rally.
Cyclone Remal, with wind speeds reaching 135 kmph, claimed four lives in West Bengal and caused extensive damage to infrastructure and property in the state’s coastal areas as it tore through West Bengal and Bangladesh, officials reported on Monday.
The TMC withdrew from the INDIA bloc in West Bengal in January but reaffirmed its commitment to remain part of the opposition alliance at the national level.
During the election campaigns in the last two months, Ms Mamata Banerjee expressed confidence that the INDIA bloc would win the Lok Sabha elections and affirmed her involvement in the anti-BJP alliance at the national level.
Sources within the TMC revealed that voting will be conducted on nine seats, including two in Kolkata, on June 1, which are crucial for the party.
Apart from Kolkata Dakshin and Kolkata Uttar, the other constituencies in the state going to polls that day include Jadavpur, Dum Dum, Barasat, Basirhat, Jayanagar, Mathurapur, and Diamond Harbour.
TMC leaders Mamata Banerjee, Abhishek Banerjee, and other top officials will exercise their franchise on that day and therefore will be unable to attend the meeting. The party has conveyed this to the organizers.
The INDIA bloc, formally known as the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance, held its first meeting in Patna on June 23 last year, followed by meetings in Bengaluru on July 17-18, 2023, and in Mumbai between August 31 and September 1, where the opposition parties adopted resolutions to contest the Lok Sabha elections unitedly.
The fourth meeting of the opposition bloc was held in Delhi on December 19. Subsequent gatherings included a rally in Delhi on March 31, where top leaders shared the stage at the “Save Democracy” rally against the arrests of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and former Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren, and a similar ‘Ulgulan’ rally in Ranchi on April 21.
The TMC has been actively participating in these meetings and rallies. At the March 31 rally in Delhi, TMC’s parliamentary party leader in Rajya Sabha, Derek O’Brien, announced that the party would remain part of the INDIA bloc.
While the TMC, which holds power in West Bengal, does not have a seat-sharing agreement with the Congress or other INDIA bloc partners in the state, it supports ally Samajwadi Party’s candidate Laliteshpati Tripathi in Uttar Pradesh’s Bhadohi.
The INDIA bloc originally comprised 28 opposition parties, though some, including Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal (United) and the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD), have since switched to the NDA.
