Bengal Congress approaches Sonia seeking seat-sharing with Left

The West Bengal unit of the Congress has written to party chief Sonia Gandhi seeking seat adjustment with the CPI-M led Left Front to dethrone the Trinamool Congress government led by Mamata Banerjee.

"A Congress-Left Front seat adjustment with a declared common minimum programme would dethrone the TMC government and usher in a Congress-Left Front alliance in West Bengal," state Congress general Secretary O.P. Mishra said in the letter giving vote and seat projections for the 2016 assembly polls.

"Given the rapid deterioration of support for the BJP in the state, it is expected that a high percentage of BJP vote would travel back to the Left and Congress combine.

"The assembly segment-wise vote projection assumes transfer of 40 percent of the total vote received by the BJP in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, in favour of Congress-Left nominees," he said.

Mishra said that if free and fair polls are conducted, then the Trinamool, which enjoys an overwhelming advantage in South Bengal because of its "terror tactics, can lose its stronghold.

The move comes amidst speculations of a coalition between the Congress and the Communist Party of India-Marxist led Left Front.

While there have been feelers from the camps, the CPI-M which concluded its five-day organisational plenum in the city on Thursday hinted at the possibility but remained evasive on the issue.