Mamata wants Cong to limit itself to six seats it won in 2004, Cong wants better deal than she gave to BJP last time

A day after announcing their tie-up for the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls due in April-May, both the Congress and the Trinamool Congress have braced themselves to strike a hard bargain and wrest as many seats as possible from each other.

Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee wants the Congress to confine itself to the six Lok Sabha seats it won in 2004, while the latter is only willing to forgo the eight Lok Sabha seats her party won during the 1999 Lok Sabha polls.

The eight Lok Sabha seats the Trinamool had won in 1999 were — Barasat, Calcutta North-West, Calcutta North-East, Calcutta South, Serampore, Contai, Jadavpur and Nabadwip.

However, after delimitation, some of these seats, including Basnerjee’s own Kolkata South seat, have been reorganised and renamed.

Two seats in Kolkata — Calcutta North-West and Calcutta North East - don’t exist now after the delimitation of 42 Lok Sabha seats in the state.

In lieu of that, the Trinamool is likely to demand two more seats this time around, which the party is yet to identify.

The Trinamool has also demanded that the party be allowed to contest 19 Lok Sabha seats it had lost but finished second during 2004 Lok Sabha elections.

These seats are — Barasat, Basirhat, Mathurapur, Diamond Harbour, Jadavpur, Barrackpore, Howrah, Uluberia, Serampore, Hooghly, Panskura, Tamluk, Contai, Jhargram, Bankura, Bishnupur, Asansol, Katwa (does not exist now after delimitation) and Bolpur.

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