As Left-Congress alliance talks hit stalemate, Mamata dials Rahul

In 2016, in spite of opposition from the Central leadership of the CPI(M), the Left Front in West Bengal allied with the Congress for the assembly elections. However, the alliance lost the elections to Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress.

Three years down the line, the alliance equations appear different: the Central leaders of the Left and Congress are pressing for a tie-up in West Bengal, but the state leadership of both parties is in disarray. Senior leaders of the Congress and the Left would like to see that the alliance or adjustment happens as early as possible.

But there are two impediments. First, the lower-ranked members of the parties feel that the seat-sharing pact this time is inconsequential beyond six seats. In the other 36 Lok Sabha seats, even if Congress and the Left join hands, they would not be able to dislodge the BJP from the second position. These six seats are Raigunj, Malda North, Malda South, Jangipur, Behrampore and Murshidabad.

The second reason, which is far more detrimental for a Congress-Left alliance, is that Mamata Banerjee is desperate not to let the BJP win even one of these six seats; ground reports claim the BJP can win three of the seats.

Banerjee would like to see the Congress support her party in four out of these six seats. In return, Banerjee would support Abhijit Mukherjee, son of Pranab Mukherjee, from Jangipur and Abu Hasem Khan Chowdhury from Malda South.

West Bengal state Congress president Somen Mitra, however, said most of the Congress workers in the state would either like to go with the Left or want to fight it alone.

"Since there has been no official proposal for an alliance or seat sharing, I have not raised it with the Congress president (Rahul Gandhi)," Mitra said. Mitra denied that there were any official talks between the Congress and Trinamool Congress. Veteran Congress leader and Rajya Sabha MP Pradip Bhattacharya has declared, “Under no circumstances, there can be a alliance between Congress and TMC in Bengal."

The CPI(M) would like to see the Left front and Congress agreeing to an adjustment in the six seats as the two parties had won from the constituencies last time. The Central committee of the CPI(M) had passed a resolution in favour of such an alliance in those seats on March 4, with party secretary general Sitaram Yechury announcing the decision in Delhi.

A sticking point could be Raigunj seat, which Congress leaders want even though it was won by senior CPI(M) leader Mohammed Salim in the last Lok Sabha election. Deepa Dasmunshi of the Congress would like to contest from Raigunj as she had won from there earlier. Not surprisingly, the Left would not like to see this happen. As a result, talk are on to resolve the stalemate.

A senior Central committee member of the CPI(M) accepted that the stalemate continued over six seats and on the rest, the deal is almost done. "But six seats are most crucial for us, which we had won last time," said the leader.

The BJP said it is sure of defeating the Trinamool Congress in four of these six seats. Two of these seats are in Malda and two in Murshidabad.

"The Congress and the Left conceded defeat to us in 36 seats and are trying to save their six seats won last time. Look at the pathetic state of affairs! But we are sure we will win four of these six seats," said Biswapriya Roychowdhury, vice president of the BJP in West Bengal.

The Trinamool Congress officially refused to comment on talks with the Congress. It refused to issue any official statement, saying, "Our leader has said we would have to win 42 out of 42 seats." Despite the denials, a source said Banerjee is continuing conversations with Rahul Gandhi.