Trinamool offers 58 seats to Congress in West Bengal

Kolkata, Mar 9: After clearing the DMK hurdle in Tamil Nadu, the Congress is in talks with Trinamool Congress which today said it has offered its ally 58 seats in West Bengal as against the national party's demand for 98.

"We have offered Congress 58 of the total 294 seats," Trinamool Congress general secretary Mukul Roy told PTI.

The Union Minister of State for Shipping said that Trinamool has suggested that the seat-sharing be based on the results of 2009 Lok Sabha election and also the subsequent election to the Kolkata civic body and 79 other municipalities last year.

In the 2009 Lok Sabha election, Trinamool had won 19 seats and Congress six. The party had also registered impressive gains in the state-wide civic polls.

However, PCC president Manas Bhuniya demanded that Trinamool should concede 98 seats to Congress based on a ''1:2 alliance formula'' which was adopted during the 2009 Lok Sabha polls.

The seat-sharing for the 2009 poll was clinched on Mamata Banerjee's terms when Trinamool Congress contested 27 seats and Congress 14 while Trinamool's another ally SUCI fought in one.

A delegation of the West Bengal Pradesh Congress office bearers, led by Bhuniya, is in Delhi to meet the party's central leaders. "My leader (Mamata Banerjee) has already said it will not be difficult to have an alliance with the Congress. We are already having an alliance with Congress. Do not worry.

Everything will be smooth," Trinamool leader Partha Chatterjee, who is the Leader of Opposition in the Assembly, told reporters here.

PTI