"It was a photoshoot...": Pralhad Joshi on Mamata's move

New Delhi [India], January 24 : Following West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress (TMC) Chief Mamata Banerjee' announced her decision to go solo in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls, Union Minister Pralhad Joshi attacked the INDIA bloc stating that it was merely a 'photoshoot'.
The INDIA bloc suffered a huge setback on Wednesday as Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee said that her party declared that the Trinamool Congress would fight Assembly and Lok Sabha polls alone in Bengal.
"I have saying this since Day one that it was merely a photoshoot. Nothing could have happened. They have been playing a drama for the past few months," Pralhad Joshi said while speaking to reporters.
The TMC Supremo, earlier today, announced that there would be no alliance in West Bengal.
"I had no discussions with the Congress party. I have always said that in Bengal, we will fight alone. I am not concerned about what will be done in the country but we are a secular party and in Bengal, we will alone defeat BJP," she said.
"I gave many proposals but they rejected them from the beginning. From then, we have decided to fight the elections in Bengal alone," Banerjee added.
The breakdown in Trinamool and the Congress came after state unit chief Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury continued his attack on the Bengal Chief Minister.
In a news conference on Tuesday, Adhir Chowdhury claimed that in the 2011 elections, Mamata Banerjee came to power with the mercy of Congress.
"This time, the elections will not be fought at the mercy of Mamata Banerjee. The Congress defeated the BJP and TMC in the two seats that Mamata Banerjee is leaving. The Congress party knows how to contest the elections. Mamta Banerjee is an opportunist; she came to power in 2011, with the mercy of Congress," the Congress MP said.
However, several leaders of the INDIA bloc, including RJD MP Manoj Jha and AAP MP Saurabh Bharadwaj asserted that the issue would be resolved.
Meanwhile, Rahul Gandhi who is in Assam as part of his Nyay Yatra tried to quell the damage been done by the state unit chief's repeated attacks by insisting that he had a good relationship with the TMC supremo.
"The negotiations on seat-sharing are underway, I don't want to comment here. But Mamata Banerjee is very close to me and our party. Sometimes our leaders say something, their leaders say something, and it goes on. It's a natural thing. Such comments won't matter and these are not things that are going to disrupt things," Rahul Gandhi said on Tuesday.
The Trinamool Congress reportedly was willing to offer the Congress a maximum of three Lok Sabha seats of the 42 seats in Bengal. In the 2019 elections, the Congress had won two Lok Sabha seats while the TMC had won 22 seats.