Seat sharing talk between Congress-ISF in knots ahead of West Bengal Assembly elections

The prospect of the Left-Congress alliance and the newly formed Indian Secular Front (ISF) seemed to be in limbo with the seat-sharing discussions between the Congress and the ISF still being in knots. Left Front sources said that even though its seat-sharing with the ISF was almost finalised but talks between the political greenhorn and Congress barely made any progress.

They further revealed that with the Congress unwilling to leave too many seats for the ISF especially in its strongholds in the districts of Malda and Murshidabad, the seat-sharing discussions almost come to a standstill.

According to the ISF leadership, the situation had become as such that they were considering “other options ” in case the alliance does not materialise.

"At present, we have enough organizational strength to field candidates in 60 to 65 seats in the Assembly elections. We have started to prepare for the Assembly elections long before the talks over the alliance with the Left Front and Congress started,” said ISF chairman Naushad Siddiqui.

“For example, despite having adequate organization we will not field candidates in certain seats in South 24 Paraganas district if the alliance materialises but if it doesn’t then we will explore other options,” he added.

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The frequent hurdles in the seat-sharing talks with the ISF also generated discontent within the State Congress leadership. Congress insiders said senior party leader and MLA Abdul Mannan who was negotiating with the ISF along with MP Pradip Bhattacharya wrote to Congress president Sonia Gandhi expressing reservation with the stand of State Congress president and Leader of Congress in the Lok Sabha Adhir Chowdhury.

“He (Mannan) stated in the letter that even though seat-sharing talks with the ISF had been held with the ISF 10 times but Chowdhury was present only three of them. So the solutions to resolve the issue proposed by him and Bhattacharya was not getting the official approval of the State Congress leadership and hence no headway could be made,” said a senior State Congress leader.

He also said that Mannan reminded Gandhi that it was “because of such attitude” there were “friendly fights” between the Left Front and the Congress in the 2016 Assembly elections despite seat sharing agreement which should be avoided this time.