Trinamool puts seat-sharing ball on high command’s court

SHILLONG, Jan 16: The state Trinamool Congress is keen on contesting one of the two Lok Sabha seats in Meghalaya but wants its high command to take a call.
The TMC and Congress, partners in the INDIA bloc, are going through a cold war over seat-sharing in Meghalaya apart from Assam and West Bengal.
“There has been no communication from the party high command on this. I do not think we can go against the wishes of the high command,” state TMC chief Charles Pyngrope told The Shillong Times on Tuesday.
The TMC wants to contest the Tura seat in Meghalaya and two of the 14 parliamentary constituencies in Assam.
Pyngrope said the party has not yet discussed the sharing of seats for the upcoming parliamentary polls. “If there was a discussion, I would have been called,” he said, admitting that a meeting with the party high command on the Lok Sabha elections is due.
Earlier, the state Congress said there has been no communication from its high command on “offering” the Tura seat to TMC. The party also said  it is averse to the idea of giving up any seat and the matter has already been communicated to the higher-ups.
Reports said the seat-sharing talks between the TMC and Congress have reached a stalemate.
The TMC maintains that it communicated its offer to Congress on December 19 during a meeting of the INDIA bloc leaders and that there is no scope for further negotiations with another panel.
After taking the ‘take or leave’ approach with the Congress, the ruling TMC in West Bengal gave the INDIA leadership’s video conference on Saturday a miss, arguing that the invite came 16 hours before the event and it was too short a time for Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to change her schedule.