LS polls: Cong mulls tie-up with Left in Bengal

Alliance talks in Bengal are at a crossroads, replete with possibilities. 

MP, 15 January 2024, Kolkata: With seats sharing talks between the Trinamool Congress (TMC) and the Congress yet to materialise and often hitting a brick wall due to differences, the grand old party is mulling possibilities of instead once again allying with the Left in Bengal for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. 

Alliance talks in Bengal are at a crossroads, replete with possibilities. Even though the Congress high command was willing to enter into seat-sharing talks with TMC, after demanding more than two seats which the TMC rejected, it is now exploring possibilities. 

The West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee (WBPCC) leaders, however, were never comfortable with the possibility of an alliance with TMC and are learnt to have now suggested to its high command to think about allying with the Left. 

It was learnt that TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee’s public remarks on Sunday over Congress’ debacle in the Assam Council election were not taken well by the grand old party. Abhishek said that Congress’ seat-sharing aspirations in Bengal are akin to aiming for the stars when they couldn’t quite grasp the ground in their own backyard. In the NCHAC elections, the BJP swept 25 out of 28 seats but TMC and the Congress failed to win a single seat. 

TMC, however, won a higher vote share in the 11 seats it contested at 12.4 per cent compared to the Congress’s 8.87 per cent across 22 seats. Presently, sources said that WB PCC chief Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury has conveyed to the party’s top-rung leaders his decision against entering into any form of alliance with TMC and even suggested that he may choose to contest the polls Independently if it comes to such a pass. 

Further, it was learnt that the CPI(M) is ready to ally with Congress but presently stuck in openly expressing its will due to the unfinished seat-sharing understanding between Congress and TMC. In the 2021 state elections, Congress and Left had allied but could not win seats. 

Many supporters had called it an “unholy nexus” given the decade-long clashes between members of these two parties who were historically considered “nemesis” of each other. 

https://www.millenniumpost.in/bengal/ls-polls-cong-mulls-tie-up-with-left-in-bengal-548353