Sonia Gandhi asks West Bengal Congress to finalise seat sharing with Left by end of January

Congress president Sonia Gandhi had instructed the West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee (WBPCC) to finalise the seat sharing discussions with the Left Front by the end January so that the alliance could start campaigning in full swing.

Congress sources said that the message was recently conveyed to the WBPCC leadership by AICC general secretary K C Venugopal and AICC observer in Bengal Jitin Prasada. The development comes at a time when the Left Front was unhappy with the State Congress leadership for not coming up with the umber of seats they want to contest in the upcoming Assembly elections.

“The AICC has informed us that Sonia Gandhi wants to seat sharing discussions with the Left Front be finalized by January 31 so that joint campaign can start in full swing,” a senior State Congress leader said.

He further revealed that WBPCC president and Leader of Congress in the Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury had informed the party leadership that seat sharing discussions with the Left Front would begin as soon as the district units submit their reports. Recently Leader of the Opposition at the State Assembly Abdul Mannan and senior MP Pradip Bhattacharya went to Delhi and apprised the AICC of the situation in Bengal.

The CPI(M) state leadership wanted the seat sharing discussions to be finalised by February so that the candidate list could be announced at the proposed joint rally by the Left Front and Congress at the iconic Brigade Parade Ground in Kolkata.

Left Front chairperson Biman Basu said that the discussions regarding the alliance with Congress was progressing but got a bit delayed due to the passing away of former WBPCC president Somen Mitra.

“We are hopeful of finalising the seat sharing discussions by early February and jointly hold a rally with the Congress in the same months,” said Basu.

Although the Left Front and Congress joined forces on a set sharing basis in the 2016 Assembly elections but the alliance did not materialize in the last Lok Sabha elections due to disagreement over seat sharing.