Trinamool will try to combine several small and big parties to fight BJP, says party MP

Kolkata: Asked about the possibility of a third front in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, senior Trinamool MP Sudip Bandyopadhyay said on Friday that TMC “would try to combine several small and big parties to fight the BJP”.
He was speaking after a meeting chaired by party chief and Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee. His party colleague and state finance minister Chandrima Bhattacharya said TMC had the power fight on its own, “whether it is within the state or at the national level.The Congress will tie up with other parties but when they need to fight BJP at the Centre, they will come looking for us. We cannot agree to that.”
The TMC also discussed a key contradiction in its overall poll strategy: the party fights against the BJP, the Congress and the Left in state elections, but there’s always talk of a “larger opposition unity” at the national level. This, the leaders felt, was sending confusing signals to voters as well as party footsoldiers.
TMC’s loss to the Congress-Left alliance in the Sagardighi bypoll, where they lost the Muslim-dominated seat for the first time in 13 years, was seen as a fallout of this “confusing signal”. Bandyopadhyay, however, stressed that TMC’s loss at Sagardighi had nothing to do with voters from the minority community, but because of the party’s weakness in the assembly constituency.
Sources said Banerjee rebuked Murshidabad MPs Khalilur Rahman and Abu Taher Khan at the meeting, even cautioning some party leaders who were allegedly “in contact” with Congress MP and PCC chief Adhir Chowdhury. The leadership also removed TMC’s minority cell president, Haji Nurul, from the position, replacing him with the younger Mosharraf Hossain. Nurul was made the cell’s chairman.
Sources said Banerjee also asked party leaders to be more active on social media.