Kolkata: West Bengal Congress chief Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury on Saturday hit out at INDIA alliance partner Trinamool Congress as he said he has defeated the party in the past.

Those who think that I am not a factor, it’s okay

His remarks came a day after it was reported that TMC is likely to field candidates in all the 42 Lok Sabha seats in West Bengal.

“Those who think that I am not a factor, it’s okay. I don’t care about anyone. Our leaders have already spoken. I have reached here only by contesting and winning. We know to contest and win,” Adhir Ranjan said while speaking to the media in Siliguri.

Adhir Ranjan’s reaction came in response to Bengal’s TMC General Secretary Kunal Ghosh’s “we are ready to contest all 42 seats” remark.

Earlier today, Ghosh took a dig at Congress saying, “The state unit of Congress is attacking TMC here and giving oxygen to BJP. This will not work. We are ready to contest all 42 seats.

Ghosh also said that Congress should talk about seat sharing on the basis of ground reality instead of “politics of pressure”. He also said that the final decision to seats will be taken by TMC supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

Trinamool is part of the INDIA bloc alliance with the Congress, and a seat sharing between the two parties was expected for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls in West Bengal.

The decision to field candidates on all 42 seats in West Bengal was reportedly taken at a meeting of the Trinamool’s top brass with the Murshidabad district leadership.

Murshidabad district has three Lok Sabha seats — Jangipur, Berhampur and Murshidabad. In the 2019 election, Congress won the Berhampur seat while the other two were bagged by TMC.

In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Adhir Ranjan won the Berhampur seat, while Trinamool won the remaining two Lok Sabha seats of Jangipur and Murshidabad.