Rahul Gandhi-led Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra is scheduled to enter West Bengal on Thursday a day after the state’s ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief Mamata Banerjee ruled out alliance with the Congress in the eastern state for the 2024 national polls.

Gandhi’s comment that “the negotiations on seat-sharing are underway” even though no talks are going on between the two sides is believed to have irked Banerjee. West Bengal Congress chief Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury’s attacks have also been blamed for souring the ties between two parties that threatens to jeopardise the prospects of the Opposition Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA).

The yatra, which will halt for two days on January 26 and 27 in West Bengal, will be closely watched against this backdrop. Gandhi is also visiting the state for the first time since campaigning here for the April-May 2021 assembly polls.

The yatra will cover Jalpaiguri, Alipurduar, Uttar Dinajpur, and Darjeeling before reaching Bihar, where chief minister Nitish Kumar is also believed to be upset over a delay in seat-sharing negotiations, on January 29.

Left parties were expected to join the march in West Bengal while TMC was unlikely to do so with Banerjee on Wednesday saying she was not even informed about it. “Have they even shown the courtesy by informing us about the rally they are holding in our state? I am also in the INDIA alliance. So, I have no relationship with them in Bengal,” Banerjee said on Wednesday.

The yatra would re-enter West Bengal on January 31 through Malda and cover Murshidabad before departing the state on February 1. Malda and Murshidabad are Congress strongholds.

Even as Congress leader Jairam Ramesh offered an olive branch minutes after Banerjee’s comments saying they could not imagine the INDIA alliance without TMC, state party spokesperson Suman Roy Chaudhuri hit out at the TMC chief. “Once a betrayer is always a betrayer. In her political career, she has betrayed the Congress and Rajiv Gandhi. She would betray the INDIA alliance,” said Chaudhuri.

Banerjee ruled out the alliance on the day Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) said there have been discussions on the party’s probable candidates for Punjab’s all 13 parliamentary seats.