The Congress high command has formally approved a tie-up with the Left Front in West Bengal for the Assembly polls due in the first half of 2021.
Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, Congress Lok Sabha MP and chief of the party's West Bengal unit, on Thursday tweeted, "Today the Congress High command has formally approved the electoral alliance with the Left parties in the impending election of West Bengal."
Until the formation of the Trinamool Congress in 1998, the Congress and Left Front were the main opposing poles of West Bengal politics. With the Left Front weakening after its defeat in the 2011 Assembly polls, the two sides stitched together an alliance for the 2016 polls. However, the Congress-Left Front alliance could get only 76 of the 294 Assembly seats in 2016 as the Trinamool Congress stormed back to power. The two sides were unable to form an alliance in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
The Congress had announced in October it would begin talks with the Left Front on an alliance for the Assembly polls in 2021. In late October, CPI(M) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury confirmed the Left Front would have an alliance with the Congress in West Bengal to defeat the BJP and Trinamool Congress.
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Adhir Chowdhury had been critical of Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee in the past. On Wednesday, Chowdhury had accused the Trinamool of facilitating the BJP's rise in West Bengal.
"Mamata Banerjee opened political doors to BJP by forming TMC-BJP alliance during 1999 Lok Sabha polls. We had cautioned her then. BJP could strengthen its foothold in Bengal due to her," Chowdhury was quoted by ANI as saying.