Kolkata/IBNS: Ahead of the crucial INDIA bloc's meeting in the national capital, the Trinamool Congress Monday evening claimed that Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee should be made the face of the opposition alliance and urged the Congress to abandon its "zamindari culture".

Banerjee is already in Delhi for the meeting and has advocated that the bloc's PM candidate be decided after the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.

Speaking to the media, TMC leader Kunal Ghosh said: "The Congress, after its defeat in the three states, should take lessons from it. It has to shun the Zamindari culture. It can't treat its partners as its subjects. To ensure that the INDIA bloc wins, it must make Mamata Banerjee, who is a three-time chief minister and three-time union minister, and other senior leaders the face of the INDIA bloc."

The Congress fought alone and lost the assembly elections in the major Hindi heartland states of Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, and Rajasthan to the BJP recently.

Expressing dissatisfaction with the grand old party's performance, Ghosh said, "The Congress has repeatedly failed to defeat the BJP. On the other hand, the TMC under the leadership of Mamata Banerjee has the record of defeating the BJP umpteen number of times."

The remark has prompted a sharp response from the West Bengal Congress unit, with spokesperson Soumya Aich Roy asserting, "We don't need lessons from the TMC on how to fight against the BJP. It is the Congress, which has been consistently fighting against the BJP, unlike the TMC which on several occasions has compromised with the saffron camp."

In New Delhi, Mamata Banerjee stated that the INDIA bloc's prime ministerial candidate will be decided after the 2024 general elections, expressing confidence that the alliance will resolve issues, including seat-sharing, and defeat the BJP.

She dismissed suggestions that the alliance has lost time in organising things, stating, "It is better late than never," and expressed confidence that the formation of an alliance is possible in West Bengal among the TMC, Congress, and the Left.

Her remarks also drew sharp reactions from the CPI(M) and the Congress in the state.

"The TMC has hardly any role in seat-sharing as it does not have any presence in other states. And in West Bengal, all of us are aware that the TMC and BJP are two sides of the same coin," CPI(M) MP Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya said.

Banerjee, meanwhile, met Arvind Kejriwal after arriving in Delhi ahead of the meeting of the opposition alliance on Tuesday.