With the Congress national leadership not having spoken a word on anti-Trinamool Congress alliance with the left Front in Bengal, the small Front partners like the Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) and Communist Party of India (CPI) have started expressing doubts about Janpath’s real plans vis-a-vis Mamata Banerjee.
According to sources, senior RSP leader Kshiti Goswami has told the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) State secretary that his party would take the so-called alliance seriously only when the Congress national leadership bares its chest on its future chemistry with the Trinamool Congress.
“What if the Congress switches sides in case of a hung HouseIJ” Goswami is known to have told the CPI(M) leadership. According to him the Congress must be told to make it clear that they want an alliance with the left to overthrow a “corrupt and despotic” regime run by Mamata Banerjee.
The CPI is also skeptic about the Congress. “Though we do not doubt their State leaders the mysterious silence of their national leaders is intriguing. They must speak up things openly against the Trinamool and invite the Front for an alliance or else there is no point making blank statements,” CPI State secretary Prabodh Panda has been quoted as telling Front chairman Biman Bose.
The Congress is also making a hard bargain insofar as the numbers of seats to be contested by it are concerned. According to sources the party is willing to scale down its demand from 110 to 90 but not less than that. On the other hand the CPI(M) is ready to leave additional 10 seats along with the originally earmarked 65 seats.
In 2011 Mamata Banerjee had unilaterally declared her candidates leaving only 65 seats for the Congress.
“Though the talks are being held in a very cordial atmosphere and both sides are placing their practical problems the district-level leaders want more seats than what Trinamool gave us then. In fact Mamata Banerjee imposed her decision on us then. Our workers do not want a similar situation now,” said Abdul Mannan one of the advocates of Alliance adding “talks are on and we hope things will fall in place in coming weeks particularly because this time round the alliance is taking place from below.”
Meanwhile, at least in seven places like Raiganj, Nadia, Burdwan, Birbhum, East Midnapore and Murshidabad the ground-level workers were already seen working jointly, writing graffiti and taking out joint rallies.