Even as the seat-sharing talks between the CPI(M) and the Congress reached a dead end with the latter deciding to go it alone in the general elections a desperate Left Front on Tuesday extended its deadline by another 24 hours for the tri-colour outfit to reconsider its stance. “Till that time we will not announce candidates for the 4 seats that the Congress had won in 2014.”
The Left had at the outset of alliance talks said the two sides should not contest on seats they won in 2014. The CPI(M) had won Raiganj and Murshidabad seats while the Congress had bagged, Behrampore, North and South Malda and Jangipur.
This time round the Congress had been demanding 17-18 seats while the Left was not willing to leave them more than 11-13 seats.
Against this backdrop the Congress on Tuesday announced the candidates list for 11 seats. The Left had already announced its list of 25 candidates last week. On Tuesday it announced a list of another 13 candidates leaving aside 4 seats currently held by the Congress.
“We still want that the two parties should come to an understanding so that the anti-TMC and anti-BJP votes can be consolidated in one place. For that we are not announcing our candidates for the four seats that they won last time. Now it is up to the Congress. If they fail to respond favourably then we will be forced to go ahead with our list unilaterally,” Left Front chairman Biman Bose said on Tuesday.
The Congress however reacted sharply saying the possibility of alliance had ended. “We also know that there is a need to defeat the TMC and the BJP but we cannot ally with the Left at the cost of our party’s dignity. They are trying to blackmail us which is not acceptable to us. So consider the alliance talks as good as over,” PCC president Somen Mitra said.
Congress MP Adhir Chowdhury told from Behrampore that “the Left had done a big mistake by unilaterally declaring its first list of 25 candidates when the talk process was on. Now they are trying to apply some balm on that injury. I wonder this balm will work now.”
Meanwhile, the political experts said that the TMC and the BJP will benefit the most from a four-cornered contest. “Instead of wasting their votes the voters will either vote for the BJP or the TMC in that case. Currently the Left voters are so much annoyed with the TMC that they will finally vote for the BJP. But the Muslim supporters of the
Left will vote for the TMC in which case both these parties will benefit from the Left-Congress divide,” said political analyst BN Majumdar.