New Delhi: Congress's Rahul Gandhi today declared that he is "very close" to Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and state Congress chief Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury's sharp remarks against the Trinamool Congress chief on seat-sharing talks "won't matter". The seat negotiation with the Trinamool Congress is on track, he added.
"The negotiation's results will come out, I will not comment on it. But Mamata Banerjee is very close to me and our party," he told reporters in Assam, through which his Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra is currently passing.
"Yes, sometimes, Congress and Trinamool Congress leaders criticise each other's party. But they are natural things, it happens. But they are not going to disrupt the relations between the Congress and the TMC," he added.
While Mamata Banerjee is known to pull no punches when it comes to Congress, as part of the Opposition's INDIA bloc the two parties are expected to pull together.
The decades of state-level rivalry, however, comes with its array of challenges. Angry outbursts from leaders of both sides happen frequently, raising speculation whether the seat sharing process will only remain on paper in the state.
Earlier this month, Bengal Congress chief Adhir Ranjan Choudhury, who is against an alliance with the Trinamool Congress, targeted Mamata Banerjee again.
A section of Congress leaders who have sympathies with the Left and want a Left-Congress understanding, have been urging the central leadership of the party to not have alliance with the Trinamool, even though senior Congress leaders are convinced about the advantages of an alliance.Mr Chowdhury, is part of the group, but keeps accusing Ms Banerjee of being in league with the BJP and trying to scuttle the alliance.
While Ms Banerjee had a good rapport with Sonia Gandhi, her relation with Rahul Gandhi is seen as strained at best. She has already made it clear that her party is not interested in allowing the Congress to contest in Bengal.
"INDIA alliance will be present in entire India and in Bengal the Trinamool Congress will fight. In Bengal it is only the Trinamool Congress that can teach the BJP a lesson. It can show the entire country the path to victory, not any other party," she has said.