![[File] Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee (L) with senior Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge | PTI](https://img.theweek.in/content/dam/week/news/india/images/2023/7/18/mamata-sonia-kharge-pti.jpg.image.340.191.jpg "[File] Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee (L) with senior Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge | PTI")
An alliance between the Congress and the Trinamool Congress in West Bengal for the coming Lok Sabha elections is now increasingly looking unlikely with a stalemate in the seat-sharing discussions between the two parties.
According to highly places sources in the Congress, there is no forward movement in the talks between the two parties, with the Trinamool not budging from its stand on giving the Congress only two seats in the state and its demand for seats in Assam and Meghalaya.
The sources said the continuing status quo in the Congress-TMC discussions is making a Congress-Left alliance appear more likely.
The sources said there is now a 75 per cent chance of the Congress and the Left parties coming together as against a 25 per cent chance of a Congress-TMC alliance happening.
After what had appeared to be a complete breakdown of talks between the two parties, the Congress had recently claimed there was a revival of talks.
Congress sources had then said the party was expecting a respectable number of seats as part of the alliance. Its expectation was around five seats including the two seats where it has sitting MPs.
The party also appeared to be ready to give up its claim on Tura constituency in Meghalaya as a deal sweetener.
As per sources, the stance adopted by state Congress chief Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury against the TMC and his incessant attacks on the Trinamool leadership is proving to be a stumbling block in the discussions.
