TMC To Stitch Pre-Poll Alliance With Congress Ahead Of 2026 West Bengal Polls? Mamata Banerjee Says…

Addressing her party's lawmakers at a meeting ahead of the Assembly's budget session, Mamata Banerjee also exuded confidence about winning the elections next year with a two-thirds majority.

File Photo of Lok Sabha LoP and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi with West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee. (ANI)

As the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress gears up for next year’s Assembly polls in West Bengal, the Chief Minister has cleared the air around the possibility of a pre-poll alliance with the Congress.

Mamata Banerjee on Monday said that her party would contest alone in the 2026 assembly elections in the state, dismissing any possibility of forging a coalition with the grand old party or any other party, news agency PTI reported, citing TMC sources.

Addressing her party's lawmakers at a meeting ahead of the Assembly's budget session, the TMC supremo also exuded confidence about winning the elections next year with a two-thirds majority. “The Congress did not help the AAP in Delhi. In Haryana, the AAP did not help the Congress. So, the BJP has won in both states. Everyone should be together. But the Congress has nothing in Bengal. I will fight alone. We alone are enough," a source quoted Banerjee as telling her party's MLAs, according to PTI.

The West Bengal CM asserted that the party would form the government in the state for the fourth time in a row after winning more than two-thirds of the total seats. PTI sources revealed that Banerjee said at the closed-door meeting that there should be an understanding between like-minded parties so that anti-BJP votes are not divided. "Otherwise, it will be difficult for the India bloc to stop BJP at the national level," she said.

The TMC chief also asked party MLAs to be alert as the BJP might try to include names of foreigners in the voter list to win the election. Banerjee informed the meeting that she would reshuffle the party's units from state-level to booth-level and various wings, a source told PTI. To select new office-bearers, she asked the MLAs to suggest three names for each post to senior leader Arup Biswas by February 25.

The TMC chief also described the arrest of former food minister Jyotipriyo Mallick in the ration scam as "unfair," claiming that there is no evidence against him.

(With PTI Inputs)