TMC maintains silence on Assembly poll results

The Trinamool Congress on Thursday maintained silence on the Assembly poll results in Maharashtra and Haryana, prompting the Congress and the CPI(M) to raise the bogey of political match fixing between the TMC and the BJP in West Bengal.

In the first Assembly elections after the BJP's triumph in the Lok Sabha polls in May, the saffron party's electoral juggernaut met with some resistance in Maharashtra and Haryana with a resurgent Congress performing creditably in the northern state.

The West Bengal Congress rejoiced the party's commendable performance in the two states, while the TMC leadership declined to comment on the poll results.

No reaction as of now, said a seniorTMC leader who did not wish to be named.

"The performance of the Congress has been lauded by the entirecountry. But it seems the TMC is not happy with it. We have witnessed similar attitude of the TMC when the Congress won the elections in three states in December 2018.

"The TMC is testing political waters before making any comment. They don't want to aggrieve the BJP with its comments,"Senior Congress leader and MP Pradip Bhattacharya said.

Senior CPI(M) leader Sujan Chakraborty said the TMC's silence is a proof of its "tacit political understanding" with the BJP and referred to the meetings TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee held with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah in New Delhi last month.

"This is a proof of the TMC's tacit political understanding with the BJP. What has stopped them from commenting (on assembly poll results) when they are always ahead in speaking out on every topic under the sun?" he said.

Denying the allegation as baseless, another senior TMC leader said the party will react at an appropriate time.

The BJP-Shiv Sena coalition was on course to retain power, albeit with a reduced majority, in Maharashtra where the opposition Congress-NCP alliance put up a good show. In Haryana, which was ruled by BJP, appeared headed for a hung assembly.