How delay in finalising alliance may cost Left, Cong

The prospective alliance between the Left Front and Congress in West Bengal is once again facing the possibility of suffering electoral losses in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections due to delay in finalising the number of seats each side will contest.

While ahead of the Assembly election in 2016, when the Left Front and Congress rushed to reach a seat sharing agreement about a month before the elections started in April 2016, this time both sides have made barely any progress in this regard.

The Trinamool Congress trounced the Left-Congress alliance in 2016 by winning 211 out of the 294 Assembly seats.

Congress sources told DH that there are several issues which need to be resolved for the alliance to function smoothly in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

"After the setback in the 2016 Assembly elections the CPI(M) leadership claimed that even as they were able to transfer their votes to us in seats which they gave us, we were unable to do the same where they contested. But they did not have any explanation why Left Front lost in large number of seats which they had convincingly won earlier without Congress’ support," said the Bengal Congress leader.

He also said that this time too the CPM leadership is yet to figure out in which seats they have the best chance to win and which seats they should leave to the Congress.

"It is rather worrying that the CPM leadership is working at the same leisurely pace as they did before the 2016 Assembly elections," the state Congress leader said.

Another issue which may plague the prospective alliance is that the CPM-led Left Front parted ways with Congress soon after the results of the 2016 Assembly elections were announced. Speaking to DH, state Congress president Somen Mitra said that this time they don't want such a short-lived alliance.

"This time we don’t want the alliance to look like the a marriage of convenience. It should be a permanent alliance and should continue at least till the next Assembly election in Bengal. This is our primary condition for alliance with the Left Front,” said Mitra.

The slow progress of the discussions between the Left Front and Congress once again became evident as Mitra admitted that only "primary discussions" have started on Thursday night.

"The discussion only started last night. Our senior leader and Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly Abdul Mannan and Pradip Bhatacharya held preliminary discussions with two Left Front leaders. Nothing has been finalised so far," said Mitra.

CPM Polit Bureau member and Left Front chairperson Biman Basu earlier said that as for the Left Front, only discussions among Front allies regarding which seats they have the best chance to win had taken place.

Sources in the CPM revealed that the party is yet to find a solution to the opposition of Left Front allies such as the Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) and Forward Bloc against alliance with Congress.