New Delhi: The Trinamool Congress (TMC) has claimed it will boycott the INDIA bloc meeting set for June 1 since they cannot combine this with their obligations in the impending elections. A senior TMC leader said this on Monday, citing the reason for this decision as the approval of several electoral events on that particular day. Stating that the seventh phase is crucial as nine seats will be voted, which is more than any other day in Bengal, and all seats in Kolkata and greater Kolkata, ‘it is a big election day for TMC’, it cannot go to Delhi this time”.
This is seen as the INDIA bloc is set to meet in a head-of-state/ government meeting to review and plan for future strategies before releasing the election results on June 4. However, the TMC missed its presence as the party is not contesting the agreement with the other members of the INDIA bloc in West Bengal. The TMC has instead focused on its poll promises on its home turf rather than attending a crucial coalition conclave in Delhi.
Since creating the 28 parties’ opportunistic INDIA bloc, many meetings have been conducted. The first Sankalp forum was held in Patna on 23rd June last year, while the second was held in Bengaluru on 17th and 18th July last year.
The third meeting took place on 31 August and 1 September, where the representatives of the opposition alliance decided to collectively fight the ongoing Lok Sabha elections. The fourth meeting took place in Delhi on December 19. The last time was in Delhi on 31st March, during the ‘Save Democracy’ protest rally in opposition to the arrest of Delhi chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal & former Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren. A similar ‘Ulgulan’ rally was held in Ranchi on April 21.
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