New Delhi, Mar 19 (PTI) The Congress on Wednesday vowed to strengthen the party organisation in all 294 assembly seats in West Bengal, even as it remained non-committal on forging an alliance in the state which goes to polls next year.

The opposition party made the assertion after its West Bengal unit leaders held a meeting with the Congress top brass including its president Mallikarjun Kharge, former party chief Rahul Gandhi and AICC general secretary, organisation, K C Venugopal.

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"Today, I had a productive discussion with our West Bengal Congress leadership at Indira Bhavan, New Delhi. The focus was clear, strengthening our party at the grassroots, and fighting for the people's rights," Gandhi said in a post on his WhatsApp channel.

The Congress will strive to be the voice of Bengal's aspirations, ?fearless, honest, and unwavering, he said.

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Congress general secretary in-charge West Bengal Ghulam Ahmed Mir, state unit chief Shubhankar Sarkar, senior leaders Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury and Deepa Dasmunshi, among others, attended the meeting here.

"It is a matter of great joy that almost all senior leaders from Bengal gathered today at the new AICC building (in Delhi) to meet with our national leadership, including Kharge Ji and Rahul Ji. There was an extensive discussion about Bengal and the state of the Congress party there," Mir told reporters after the meeting.

It was very encouraging, as the leaders who had been holding certain concerns for a long time finally got the opportunity to share them, and the leadership listened attentively and patiently, he said.

"The people are upset with the Centre and the government there and in such a scenario the Congress has an important role there. In a planned manner, the party is ready to provide leadership to the people of West Bengal," Mir said.

"We have done it in the past and now we have gotten together to do it going further and voice the issues of the people who have been neglected there," he said.

Asked if there was a possibility of an alliance with the TMC, Mir said the Congress is looking to strengthen its organisation and raise the voice of the people.

"Elections are far off, we will see when the time comes," he said.

Mir asserted that the people of Bengal and the youth want the Congress to play an important role.

"Right now we will work on our organisation in all the 294 seats, I have said that in the past and say it now that we are preparing a long term programme that will include taking out 'padyatras'," he said.

Claiming that the people in Bengal are unhappy and want the Congress to play a key role, Mir said there is a lot of anti-incumbency in the state.

Asked if Chowdhury was upset, Mir said no one is upset and he did not stay back for the press interaction as he had a flight to catch.

In the 2021 assembly polls, the TMC had won 215 seats while the BJP bagged 77. The Congress and the Left contested together and drew a blank.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)