Bengal unit of the Congress Party is planning to contest single handedly in the next year’s Lok Sabha elections, party insiders say.
The Pradesh Congress leadership has been given a clear mandate by the Central leadership to take a decision on its system of alliances, sources said. The decision is the fallout of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s prior announcement to go it alone in the general elections.
“Our workers are being attacked and killed and their houses and properties looted every day by the Trinamool Congress people. They are being framed in false cases. So the Congress plans to take on the TMC alone on its own strength,” PCC president Somen Mitra said.
Insiders however said its public posturing apart, the PCC still might wait for a “respectable offer” from the Trinamool without which the party will go it alone in the elections.
The PCC is divided in three groups. The first group led by former PCC president Adhir Chowdhury and State Opposition Leader Abdul Mannan who want an alliance with the Left Front. The second group led by the likes of Subhankar Chakrabarty, AH Khan Chowdhury feel the Congress has no chances of winning without support from the Trinamool. The third groups led by the likes of MP Pradip Bhattacharya want to go it alone.
Mitra a veteran party leader of 1960s and 70s has asked the lower rung leaders to reach out to the people and strengthen the organisation “where we have a bigger presence.” The Congress currently has four MPs in Bengal. While two seats are from Murshidabad the two others are from Malda district.
However the party alleges that its organisational base has been “gobbled up by the Trinamool Congress which has either by muscle power or by lure of money forced a large number of our local workers to join their side.”
Mitra said “we will have to rebuild our organisation in many places. The victories in Rajasthan, MP and Chhattisgarh shows that we still can do it even in Bengal. If we start working from now then we can definitely challenge the TMC.”
On whether the party will still go with the Trinamool if they offer a respectable alliance, he said “they have not approached us, neither we will go to them begging for seats.”