The Congress has decided to fight the upcoming Assembly Elections in West Bengal alone, fielding candidates in all 294 seats in the state. The decision was taken at a key party meeting on Thursday, attended by Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge, Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi and other top leaders of the West Bengal Congress.
Mita Chakraborty, Chairperson of the State Congress's Media and Publicity Department, said, "After a meeting of the Congress high command and the state Congress leaders in Delhi on Thursday, it was decided that the Congress will fight the elections in the state as a single force. We will field candidates in all 294 seats. The last time Congress contested the assembly elections in the state alone was in 2006."
Top leadership explained the rationale behind the decision on the party’s inability to perform in alliance. Congress state in-charge Ghulam Ahmed Mir said in the past, alliance formation in the state had demoralised Congress workers at the grassroots level. In the 2021 West Bengal Assembly elections, the Congress could not win a single seat in alliance with the Left Front.
Bengal Congress leaders reportedly told the High Command that the party has been unable to strengthen itself over the past two decades due to its dependence on coalitions. By contesting elections alone, the Congress is trying to strengthen its base at the grassroots level.
Congress leaders appear to be supportive of this decision. Sudip Roy Burman, the Congress observer for the Bengal elections, said, "We failed to win a single seat in 2021. It couldn't get any worse than this, and now we have decided to contest the elections alone."
Congress MP Pradeep Bhattacharya was also supportive of the 'Ekla Chalo' policy. "I remember in 2006, I myself took the initiative to fight alone in the state. That year, we won 21 seats in the state," he told reporters on Thursday.
However, there are also speculations that the ruling Trinamool Congress in the state offered Congress very few seats. The Left is also not interested in an alliance with Congress. Both parties are yet to comment on the allegations
In 2016 and 2021, Congress contested 92 seats in alliance with the Left. In 2016, the party won 44 seats with a vote share of 12.25 per cent. However, in 2021, the party failed to even open its account, and its vote share dropped to 3 per cent.
