LS Polls: Bengal Cong not sure of TMC alliance

The Congress leadership in West Bengal is on tenterhooks whether the party High Command will decide in favour of an alliance with Trinamool Congress (TMC) in the state for the Lok Sabha elections.

According to the state leadership, the reason for their concern is that the High Command is yet to convey their final decision even as the Bengal leadership has made their reservations clear against joining forces with TMC clear in December last year.

“Since we have not received any official communication from the High Command regarding an alliance with TMC nothing conclusive can be said on the issue,” state Congress president Somen Mitra told DH. Mitra has repeatedly made it clear that he is against any kind of electoral alliance with TMC.

Congress sources revealed that a section of the state leadership is apprehensive that if the High Command decides in favour of an alliance with TMC then Congress may struggle to retain its "political relevance" in Bengal.

Elaborating further on the issue a senior state Congress leader said that TMC has been engineering defection in Congress since they pulled out of the coalition government with TMC in Bengal in 2011. Several Congress MLAs have publicly expressed support for TMC.

“ It was not a politically prudent step for us to align with TMC in the 2011 Assembly elections,” said the Congress leader.

He also said that the state leadership has primarily decided on two electoral strategies for the Lok Sabha elections. “ We either want to fight on our own strength or join forces with the Left Front in West Bengal,” he said.

The fact that CPI(M) is yet to take a call regarding an alliance with Congress in West Bengal had also become a cause of the concern for the state Congress leadership. CPI(M) failed to reach a conclusion over the issue at its last state committee meeting in December.

“ The more CPI(M) delay their decision the worse. Our party High Command is also aware of it and the delay may influence their decision,” said the Congress leader.