High command to decide on seat sharing with Left, says Bengal Congress

West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee (WBPCC) left the final decision on seat sharing with the Left Front in the state with the party high command on Sunday following differences over three seats, two of which are held by Communist Party of India (Marxist) leaders.

The seats are Raiganj and Murshidabad where CPI(M) leaders Md Salim and Badaruddoza Khan won in 2014 and Purulia where the Trinamool Congress emerged victorious. The All India Forward Bloc, one of the parties that are a constituent of the Left Front insists that it should field its candidate from Purulia.

According to state Congress president Somen Mitra, they wanted to contest the three seats. “However, the CPI(M) is unwilling to cede Raigunj and Murshidabad since they have sitting MPs from these two. So we have left the decision to the party’s high command. The state unit will accept whatever AICC decides,” said Mitra.

On Sunday, the WBPCC has sent a letter to AICC requesting it to decide.

Incidentally, the two camps had an electoral understanding before the assembly polls in 2016 but were trounced by Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress that won 211 of the 294 seats.

According to a leader of Left Parties in Bengal assembly, Sujan Chakraborty, any decision on arrangement with Congress will be taken after further discussion at the party’s ongoing two-day central committee meeting in New Delhi.

“Our formula is simple, seat sharing agreement will be for those seats where neither Left nor Congress has sitting MPs,” he said.

On February 27, Mitra told the media that a final decision on the three seats in question will be taken by Sunday and, in case Left Front is unwilling to give up their stakes for the three seats, Congress will field candidates in all the 42 seats in the state.

“People in Raiganj and Murshidabad constituencies have switched from CPI(M) to Congress in large numbers over the past five years, but there are no instances of our workers joining the CPI(M). Given the present scenario, Congress deserves the seats,” Mitra said on February 27.