The BJP and Trinomial Congress were trying to polarize the electoralatmosphere which was why they were spreading all kinds of rumors aboutfailed alliance talks between the Congress and Left Front.
Urging the two sides to hasten up the talk process so that the twoparties can hit the streets well before the next year’s Assemblyelections Chowdhury on Wednesday said “the TMC and the BJP are tryingto polarise the state on communal lines, and it is the duty of theLeft and the Congress to provide a third alternative,”adding the twoparties were spreading all kinds of rumours suggesting that theseat-sharing talks between the two sides had proved to be anon-starter.
Meanwhile, in an unrelated development the State BJP leadership on Wednesday said that Home Minister Amit Shah would not be able to come to Bengal ahead of the Durga Pujas. Instead he would come to the Stateonly after the Pujas.
In Shah’s place BJP president JP Nadda would visit the State onOctober 19. He would go to North Bengal and hold meetings with seniorParty leaders there, sources said.
Referring to how the Left and Congress jointly launched a number ofmovements in the past couple of years he said “a time has come to takeforward this alliance to its logical conclusion, and that is sharingof seats for the elections,” adding the preliminary round of talks onset-sharing between the two sides would begin next week.
Incidentally Left Front Chairman and CPI(M)politburo member Biman Bosehad reported spoken to the Congress leadership asking it to hasten upthe talk process and hit the streets early. Even Chowdhury said the two sides should begin the talks as early aspossible to avoid last-minute "hiccups". Though the two sides hadjointly contested the 2016 elections their dialogue ahead of the lastyear’s parliamentary elections fail in the last moment.
Chowdhury said that the two sides had fought jointly in 2916 but thetalks were half-baked. In fact the 2016 Alliance jointly picked up 77out of 294 seats whereas the Trinamool Congress won 212. However thecatch was the Left Congress alliance lost out to the ruling outfit inabout 70 seats by slender margin of 150 to 4000 votes which the twosides had blamed on a “partisan Election Commission that ignoredmassive violence during elections.”
Congress MP Pradip Bhattacharya, who is the chairman of thenewly-formed coordination committee, along with Mr Chowdhury and thestate's Leader of Opposition Abdul Mannan are likely to lead the talkswith the Left parties, Pradesh Congress Committee sources said.
On the alleged rumours being spread by the BJP and TMC, Chowdhury saidthe Congress and Left Front should not pay heed to “canards” beingspread against the alliance.The two parties were spreading rumour that the Congress and Left hadlost reference and so the voters should choose between the TMC and theBJP.