Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge spoke with Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee today, senior party leader Jairam Ramesh said and asserted that the two parties "will find a way forward".
Mr Ramesh's remarks came amid a Congress-Trinamool impasse over seat-sharing in Bengal for the 2024 polls and a day after Ms Banerjee announced that her party will fight the elections in the state "alone".
Mallikarjun Kharge, Rahul Gandhi, and everyone in the party would be "just delighted and privileged to have her as part of the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra even if it is for a few minutes", the party's general secretary in-charge communications, Jairam Ramesh, told news agency PTI.
"Congress president Kharge has spoken with her today and we will find a way forward because her objective is the objective of the INDIA bloc which is to defeat the BJP resoundingly in Bengal and convincingly in other parts of the country," he said.
The Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra would be immensely strengthened by her presence, he added.
"Without her, we cannot fight the BJP in Bengal and the rest of the country. She is the integral, essential pillar of the opposition bloc INDIA. She has played a crucial role in making the INDIA bloc a reality," the Congress leader said.
The remarks came after Rahul Gandhi expressed confidence in the unity of the Opposition bloc in combating injustice nationwide.
The Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra, led by Rahul Gandhi, entered Bengal today from Assam through Bakshirhat in the Cooch Behar district. It will take a two-day break on January 26-27 before restarting on January 28.
On Wednesday, Mamata Banerjee said, "I gave them (Congress) a proposal (on seat sharing) but they refused it at the outset. Our party has now decided to go alone in Bengal."
After her sudden comments, Congress adopted a conciliatory approach, with Mr Ramesh asserting that the INDIA bloc "cannot be imagined without Mamata Banerjee".
The CPI(M)-led Left Front, Congress, and the TMC are part of the 28-party INDIA bloc.
In the 2019 elections, the TMC secured 22 seats, Congress won two, and the BJP bagged 18 seats in Bengal.
The TMC earlier allied with the Congress in the 2001 assembly polls, the 2009 Lok Sabha polls, and the 2011 assembly polls, leading to the ousting of the CPI(M)-led Left Front government of 34 years.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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