Bengal Congress miffed with Left’s candidate list

West Bengal Congress is miffed with the Left Front’s decision to field candidates in Purulia and Basirhat Lok Sabha seats. Left Front chairperson Biman Basu’s indication that there may be direct contest between Left Front and Congress in these two seats has also not gone down well with the state Congress leadership.

Speaking to DH a senior state Congress leader said that the way CPI(M) is handling the seat sharing arrangement there may be a direct contest between Left Front and Congress in five to six seats which will ultimately benefit the Trinamool Congress (TMC) and BJP. Left Front on Friday declared candidates for 25 seats including Murshidabad and Raiganj for which candidates were declared earlier.

“Discussion on seat sharing between the Left Front and Congress is progressing in a manner which is complicating matters further,” said the state Congress leader.

Congress is also skeptical of CPI(M)’s ability to convince the other Left Front constituents to ensure that the seat sharing takes place smoothly.

“CPI(M) is having so many disagreements with other Left Front constituents. This has never happened before,” said the Congress leader.

Congress sources revealed that state Congress president Somen Mitra has repeatedly urged the CPI(M) leadership that instead of squabbling over a handful of seats it will be beneficial to both sides if the ablest candidates are fielded.

“The way CPI(M) is behaving it will be difficult for us to perform well apart from the four seats which we won in the last Lok Sabha elections. CPI(M) is saying that they will sort out the issues but I can’t understand on what basis they are making this claim,” said the Congress leader.

The situation has become as such that state Congress president Somen Mitra told DH that if the Left Front wants to end the discussion on seat sharing then his party will head on its own path.

“The discussions are continuing and I don’t want to make any comments which will disrupt it. If the Left Front tells us that they don’t want to proceed any further and end the discussion then we will take our own path,” said Mitra.

He also said that Congress’ candidate list for West Bengal will be declared within two to three days.