Congress shuts door on CPI(M) in Bengal; to fight Assembly polls alone

Talking to reporters, Mir said the meeting featured important strategic discussions related to the West Bengal election, likely to be held in April-May.

New Delhi: Congress on Thursday shut its door on the CPI(M) for an electoral understanding in West Bengal by deciding to contest all 294 constituencies in the upcoming Assembly election, insisting that the past exercise of co-operating with the Left party has "demoralised" the cadre.

The decision to go solo, which came three weeks after the CPI(M) Central Committee made it clear that it is open to have an electoral understanding with the Congress “to defeat” the Trinamool Congress and the BJP in West Bengal, was taken at a meeting chaired by Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge.

Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, General Secretary (Organisation) KC Venugopal, Bengal in-charge Ghulam Ahmed Mir, Bengal Congress president Subhankar Sarkar and senior leaders Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, Isha Khan Choudhury and Mausam Noor among others attended the meeting.

While the old guard in the party, including Adhir and Pradip Bhattacharya, were favouring a tie-up with the Left party, the younger leaders were against an electoral understanding with the CPI(M), as they felt it robbed their electoral opportunities and was not helping the party organisationally.

After the meeting, Mir told reporters, "after discussions with everyone, it has been decided that the Congress will contest all 294 seats independently in West Bengal. We'll make preparations keeping this in mind. Forming an alliance in the state in the past had demoralised Congress workers at the grassroots level."

Ranajit Mukherjee, West Bengal Congress Political Affairs Committee member, told DH, "the decision makes all Congress cadre, supporters and the entire ecosystem positively active towards working for elections. We'll will not only do well in the polls. It is an investment for the future. It will help people to believe in us and we will be able to deliver a government that people deserve."

A senior Congress leader claimed its vote share has decreased while contesting in alliance as a minor partner and it has reached a point that it is neither winning seats nor have a decent vote share. "Even at the height of CPI(M) rule, we had 40% votes though seats were less. We managed 27% even after Mamata Banerjee left. But it has declined since 2006 and now we have just 3%," the leader said.

While the Congress was the major leader in an alliance it formed in 2006, it has been a minor partner in 2011, 2016 and 2021 elections. In 2006, Congress contested 262 seats winning 21 with a vote share of 14.71 per cent while five years later, it entered into an alliance with Trinamool fighting 66 and winning 42 with 9.09 per cent votes.

However in 2016, it entered into an electoral understanding with the Left Front, contesting 92 seats and winning 44 with a vote share of 12.25 per cent. Congress again contested 92 in 2021 in alliance with the Left but drew a blank. In the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, Congress managed to win one seat in alliance with the Left while in 2019, when they fought separately, Congress won two. 

After a meeting of its Central Committee in Thiruvananthapuram last month, the CPI(M) had said, "in Bengal, the party will work for the defeat of both the TMC and the BJP, which are trying to polarise the society. We will try to rally all the forces that are ready to work against them.”