Congress and Left Front on Thursday finally stitched an alliance for the upcoming Assembly elections in West Bengal next year.
“Today the Congress high command has formally approved the electoral alliance with the Left parties in the impending election of West Bengal,” West Bengal Congress chief Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury took to Twitter to announce the major political development in the State where the BJP has started a high pitched poll battle.
While the CPI(M) central committee had announced in October that it was ready for alliance with the Congress to fight against ruling the Trinamool Congress and an aggressive BJP, the process was delayed due to Bihar Assembly elections and as the Congress leadership went incommunicado in this regards.
In 2016 Bengal Assembly polls, the Left Front and the Congress together had won 76 out of 294 seats in West Bengal after garnering about 38 per cent vote share. The Left Front received 26 per cent of the votes, while the Congress got only 12 per cent. Despite such a low vote share, the Congress won 44 seats, while the Left Front managed to bag only 32.
In the meeting last month, the State Congress leaders had unanimously argued for the alliance. The Congress high command took special note of the party’s decimating vote share in Bengal, which was down to 6.29 per cent in 2019, while the BJP’s was 40 per cent and the TMC was 43 per cent.
CPI(M) central committee had decided in October that the party and the Left front would have an electoral understanding with the Congress to fight against the ruling TMC and an aggressive BJP in West Bengal, where both the CPI(M) and Congress have been facing an existential crisis.
In November, after Rahul Gandhi’s online meeting with Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury and other State party leaders, sources had said the party would begin seat-sharing talks with the Left Front after Congress president Sonia Gandhi gives the green signal.
Though the seat-sharing talks before the last Assembly polls and the 2019 Lok Sabha elections could not materialise, the Congress reaped the benefits both the times in terms of seats won as it has a high concentration of voters in select constituencies in north Bengal.
The Left Front had failed to win a single seat in 2019 Lok Sabha polls, losing security deposits in 39 constituencies while the Congress bagged just two seats, losing security deposits in 38 other constituencies. On the other hand, the BJP won 18 of the 42 Lok Sabha seats, only four behind TMC’s 22 seats, announcing itself as a formidable force in the Bengal political arena.
Later in the day speaking at a press conference, Chowdhury took a dig at the BJP and said that the Congress doesn’t ‘supply’ leaders from Delhi. When asked about the party’s CM face for Bengal polls, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said decision in this regard will be taken later.
Citing the TMC-BJP alliance in 1999 Lok Sabha polls, Chowdhury has said that Congress had warned Mamata at that time but she helped the strengthening of BJP in Bengal.
West Bengal Assembly with 294 seats will go to polls in April-May 2021, Trinamool holds 222 seats. However, BJP has made major inroads in the State in the Lok Sabha elections winning 18 seats, and establishing itself as the major Opposition force in the State. Recently the TMC trumped the BJP in all 3 bypolls but the BJP is using its booth-level strategy, has deployed its top leaders including Home Minister Amit Shah and party president JP Nadda in the State for winning the upcoming elections.