West Bengal Polls: Left-Congress Alliance in Agreement over 193 out of 294 Seats

Kolkata, January 28: The West Bengal Left Front and the Congress party met at the state Congress headquarters at Bidhan Bhawan in Kolkata this morning. In a press conference following the meeting, the parties said that talks about the seat-sharing arrangement between the parties ahead of polls in the state have proceeded amicably to the next stage.

This morning, after their recent decision to leave all the 77 seats won in the last assembly election to the respective winning party, a decision has been arrived at for another 116 seats; 68 seats will be contested by the Left Front and 48 by Indian National Congress candidates.

So far, seat sharing arrangements have been sealed in a total of 193 seats out of the 294 seats to which elections will be held sometime around the months of April or May.

The 116 seats are where candidates of the respective parties has secured the second position in the electoral fray. It has also been decided that in the next phase of talks the seats being touted as stumbling blocks – where friendly fights took place the last time – will be addressed.

West Bengal Left Front Chairman Biman Basu, CPI(M) state secretary Suryakanta Mishra, RSP state secretary Biswanath Choudhury, CPI state secretary Swapan Banerjee, PCC president Adhir Ranjan Choudhury, MP Pradip Bhattacharya, Manoj Chakraborty and Nepal Mahato took part in the discussions today.

Sitaram Yechury and Rahul Gandhi to be Invited for Brigade rally

The leaders said that discussions are expected to be complete by the first week of February and that the BJP was the primary enemy but that to defeat the BJP the TMC’s defeat should be ensured.

Basu added that the in order to defeat the “anti-people” BJP and the TMC, a decision was taken to accommodate everyone within the fray. He added that on February 28 there would be a huge rally at the Brigade Parade Grounds in Kolkata. He added that both, Congress MP Rahul Gandhi and CPI(M) general secretary, Sitaram Yechury, will be invited to the Brigade Rally.

Speaking to the press, Congress leader Adhir Choudhury said that both, the BJP’s lotus and the grass flower of the TMC were from the same stem and that defeating both would be the objective of the Left-Congress electoral alliance.

He said that the CPI(M) had a long history of administering the state government and that the Congress had an equally long record of being in government at the Centre; he said both these experiences would come in handy for the people of the state.

BJP’s Rath Yatra could Stir Communal Passions

Both, Left Front Chairman Biman Basu and Adhir Choudhury, took strong exception to the BJP’s proposed Rath Yatra. The former accused the BJP of being religion ‘merchants’ while Adhir Choudhury urged the Mamata Banerjee government to not let the yatra happen and to ban it immediately as it was ploy to orchestrate a riot in the state.

Later, answering reporters’ questions, Choudhury also alleged that there was a “deliberate intelligence failure” on the part of the Delhi Police in the events that unfolded in New Delhi on January 26. He said that the BJP wanted to play up the issue and asked how such events could transpire on Republic Day, a time when the national capital is generally on ‘high alert’.