Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday said the Trinamul Congress was hoping to secure the required vote percentage to remain a national party when it ventured out of Bengal to contest polls in states like Meghalaya and Goa, denying allegations of hurting the interests of the Congress.

The chief minister was reacting to a tweet from Congress communications chief Jairam Ramesh where he accused Trinamul of poaching its MLAs and thereby weakening Opposition unity and serving the BJP.

“I think we all are together at the national level. At (the) state level, all parties should understand that state parties have their own obligation.... You (Congress) will be (the) only national party. BJP will be (the) only national party. Our party, if we contest four-five state election(s), how do we become the national party? It is not that for winning the election, it is for the vote percentage also, through which we may be a national party,” Mamata said at Nabanna.

She went on to add that the Election Commission of India had wrongfully taken away the recognition of Trinamul as a national party.

“Our national party status was till ’26, but they reviewed it earlier and cancelled it. This is not proper.... All we wanted that we had a little bit of (vote share) in three-four places so that we can continue to be a national party. Only they will be (a national party) and nobody else will?” she added.

This is the first time Mamata clarified the reason behind her party’s contests in Meghalaya, Goa and Tripura.

In his tweet, Ramesh said: “Three months after he was elected as a Congress MLA in a historic victory Bayron Biswas has been lured away by the TMC in West Bengal. This is a complete betrayal of the mandate of the people of the Sagardighi Assembly constituency. Such poaching which has happened earlier in Goa, Meghalaya, Tripura and other states is not designed to strengthen Opposition unity and only serves the BJP’s objectives.”

Mamata said Biswas’s induction had been organised by local leaders of Trinamul and she was unaware of it.

Congress workers of Sagardighi burnt Biswas’s poster on Monday night and tried to demonstrate in front of his residence at Samserganj in Murshidabad district. Later, the party called off the protest. Ten police personnel were posted in front of his house.

Additional reporting by AlamgirHossain in Behrampore