TMC to announce Lok Sabha candidates for Meghalaya and Assam

New Delhi: After West Bengal, Trinamool Congress is going to announce candidates for Tura Lok Sabha seat in Meghalaya as well as for seats in Assam, in a signal that it is in no mood to revisit its split with the Congress.

Former Meghalaya Chief Minister Mukul Sangma may be fielded from Tura where the Congress has already announced Saleng A Sangma as its candidate. Earlier, Congress had indicated that it was willing to sacrifice Tura for Trinamool for an alliance in West Bengal.

In the last Lok Sabha polls in 2019, Mukul Sangma, then in Congress, had polled 41.24 per cent votes in Tura but lost to Agatha Sangma of NPP who won the seat with a margin of around 64,000 votes. Mukul Sangma later left Congress to join Trinamool.

Trinamool sources said the Congress went ahead with naming Meghalaya candidates and is talking about them rushing to name candidates in West Bengal. They said they are realistic about their chances and would not be fighting Shillong where Vincent H Pala of Congress is the sitting MP.

Sources said they would also contest 2-4 seats in Assam and the final call is left to the state unit.

With Trinamool announcing all 42 candidates, the Congress is now in the process of finalising a deal with the Left Front. CPI(M) Polit Bureau, which met in Delhi, is learnt to have given its green signal for a seat sharing arrangement with Congress.

Congress sources said Behrampur MP and Congress' Lok Sabha leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, who is a known Mamata Banerjee-critic, has suggested that CPI(M) should field its Bengal Secretary Mohd Salim from Murshidabad, adjoining his seat, to maximise the votes in these areas.

The Left Front in Bengal will be meeting in Kolkata on Tuesday to discuss seat sharing arrangements. CPI, Forward Bloc and RSP will not be very happy to concede seats to Congress as their party's national and state status will depend on the vote share they would be garnering in the Lok Sabha polls.