Elections 2019 | Bengal Cong's ultimatum to Left Front: Decide on seat sharing by March 3

Kolkota: The West Bengal Congress has given an ultimatum to the Left Front to take a call on seat sharing for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections by Sunday.

Miffed with the Left Front and its allied parties in West Bengal, the Congress on Wednesday said there will be no seat sharing with the CPI(M) by compromising on the party’s dignity.

It also said the Left Front should take a call on a tie-up for the upcoming general election by this Sunday.

The decision came after a meeting of its state election committee, which was chaired by Congress in-charge of Bengal Gaurav Gogoi, to decide on the strategy for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.

According to state Congress sources, chairman of the state co-ordination committee Pradip Bhattacharya and Leader of Opposition in Assembly Abdul Mannan will convey the message to the CPI(M) leadership.

“We can't wait till eternity for CPI(M). They have our list of seats. Now, it is for them to take a call on the matter on what they want. We will not compromise with our dignity for the sake of seat sharing. We have prepared our candidates list and have decided to field candidates for all the 42 seats,” said a senior state Congress leader.

Apart from Raiganj and Murshidabad, the Congress is keen on at least 15 other constituencies which includes Purulia.

Represented by the CPI(M), Raiganj and Murshidabad are the only two Lok Sabha seats that the Left won in West Bengal in 2014.

These two constituencies are, however, considered strongholds of Congress.

The Purulia Lok Sabha seat is presently with the ruling Trinamool Congress, but after the violent political clashes during the local body polls, there is deep resentment against it.

The BJP is trying to feed on this resentment.

Left Front constituent Forward Bloc is not ready to swap the Purulia seat with Congress, as it had been fighting from that constituency for several decades.

Raiganj, which was a pocket borough of Congress stalwart Priya Ranjan Dasmunshi, elected CPI(M)'s Mohammad Salim in 2014.

He defeated Priya Ranjan’s wife and Congress nominee Deepa Dasmunshi by less than 2,000 votes.

Murshidabad was bagged by Badarroza Khan of CPI(M), who defeated Congress’ Abdul Mannan Hossain by about 18,000 votes.

Hossain, however, had won this seat in 2009, ousting the Left Front candidate Anisur Rahman.

“Apart from these three seats we want to contest at least 15 other seats. But the CPI(M) is ready to give us only 12. So if CPI(M) doesn’t agree it is better to fight alone rather than compromising with our dignity,” said another senior state Congress leader present at the party’s closed door election committee meet on Wednesday.

Simmering discontent

Meanwhile, a section of Congress workers staged a protest against senior party leaders Abdul Mannan and Pradip Bhattacharya over proposed seat sharing with the CPI(M) for the Lok Sabha polls, party sources said.

Mannan, who is Leader of Opposition in West Bengal state Assembly and Bhattacharya, a party MP and chairman of state coordination committee, faced protests as a section of the state Congress workers shouted slogans against them.

The party activists charged them with trying to compromise interests of the party by forging a seat sharing deal with CPI(M).

“Everyone is favour of fighting the election individually, but these are only people who wants to compromise with the Left and is trying to give them an upper hand,” said the source.

Bhattacharya hit back at the protestors saying they were acting against the interests of the party.

“After being in Congress for last four decades, I don’t need a lecture from you on what is in favour of the party and what is against it,” Bhattacharya reportedly told protestors.

Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee president Somen Mitra had hinted that his party was ready to align with the Left for the general elections.

However, the Left Front is also not keen to align with the Congress as it feels it can win more seats by contesting on its own.

After the huge turnout at the Left’s Brigade rally on February 3, a section of young voters felt the Left was in a position to make gains in the 2021 assembly elections, if it can reach out more to the grassroot-level workers and strengthen its organizational machinery.

The Left is in a fix after earlier allying with the Congress to fight the Trinamool. The Trinamool is also part of the broader opposition being stitched against the BJP.

Unperturbed by the growing speculation over Congress-Left Front alliance in West Bengal, Trinamool Congress leaders said that as long as the Opposition votes get divided, the ruling party will not be challenged at all.

“This will also keep BJP at bay as the combination of Congress and Left Front votes will push BJP to the third position. A three-cornered contest will only ensure that our vote share remains intact,” said a senior TMC leader.