One subtle move made by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee seems to have left Bengal Pradesh Congress vertically divided over a possible alliance with the Trinamool Congress.
Days after the top TMC leadership said that they could at best leave two parliamentary seats of Behrampore and Malda South — presently held by the trio-colour party — for the Congress following a declaration by the Chief Minister that her party would take on the BJP alone in the State a verbal battle has ensued in the PCC leadership with one side favouring alliance with Banerjee at any cost and the other wanting to stick to the previous seat-sharing arrangement with the Left.
Close on the heels of Banerjee’s ekla chalo statement PCC president Adhir said that neither he nor the Congress depended on the Chief Minister’s mercy to win seats in Bengal. “I won the 2019 elections from Behrampore on my own strength and won it this time also,” he said.
“Congress is fighting on its own ... we are strong enough to fight our own battle. If the TMC holds discussions with someone it is their responsibility to explain … it is their own matter... Their leaders have said that they are with the INDIA alliance in the rest of the country but in Bengal they will fight alone … the Congress will not beg for an alliance in this State because we are strong enough to win our own seats.”
However Malda South MP and a senior State Congress leader Abu Hasem Khan Chowdhury immediately opposed Chowdhury saying he was no body to decide on important issues like an electoral alliance.
Apparently unsure of his chances Abu Hasem said, “It is for the AICC to decide whether there will be any alliance with the TMC or not and Adhir Chowdhury has nothing to do with this … whatever he said may be his own opinion.”
In 2019 the Congress won Behrampore and Malda South seats within a seat sharing formula with the Left Front. Even last year the Congress and the Left together trounced the TMC from Sagardighi Assembly seat in Murshidabad district by a whopping margin of 53,000 votes. It is another matter that the Congress candidate soon switched sides to join the TMC.
Incidentally the Congress had this time round demanded at least six seats — of Darjeeling, Malda South, Behrampore, Murshidabad, Purulia and Basirhat from the TMC — for the alliance to be successful. The TMC apparently rejected the demand earmarking only two seats for the Congress.
On the other hand if the Congress strikes an alliance with the Left it is confident of getting about 8-10 seats apart from the present two, inside sources said.
Referring to the issue of alliance, CPI(M) central committee member and former MP Sujan Chakrabarty said that the Left had made it clear that it will fight the BJP and the TMC in Bengal. “We had arrangements with the Congress earlier … let us see if such a system can be worked out this time … the two sides may take decision on this subsequently …but in any case we are through with our Insaf Yatra led by Meenakshi Mukherjee which was an overwhelming success in the State.”
TMC spokesperson Kunal Ghosh said that “if Adhir Chowdhury continues to hold the CPI(M) hands which itself has drawn a big zero in the
State then it is his choice … we don’t have to say anything about that … but he will have to remember that the Congress had been at the receiving end of the CPI(M) attacks for the 34 years of the Left rule.”
