Ujjal Mukherjee, Beaton Chakraborty and Krishnandu Adhikari: What will be the future of the Left-Congress alliance in the state ahead of Panchayat Elections 2023? Which way will the two parties walk with seat agreement? The Congress leadership is willing to field candidates in more seats after the Congress win in Karnataka. Congress leaders are not ruling out the possibility of alliance? But will the Congress leave so many seats? The question remains (Left Congress Alliance).
The beat was cut to the tune of ‘Hum Saath Saath Hay’!
After the victory at Sagardighi, everything was going well. Mohammad Salim and Adhir Chowdhury also attacked the Trinamool-BJP from a platform in Siuri. But, to some extent, this ‘Hum Saath Saath Haya’ tune has lost its rhythm after the Congress’s landslide victory in the Karnataka assembly polls.
An unwritten negotiation has started between the two camps on the formula of the Left-Congress seat compromise in Bengal’s panchayat polls. A section of the leadership of the state Congress feels that the Congress has got a lot of oxygen in Bengal at the moment. After the huge victory in Karnataka, their behavior has changed. Therefore, the Congress leadership wants to jump with all its might in the panchayat polls.
Just last week, state Congress president Adhir held a meeting with leaders of the Congress party responsible for the panchayat elections. According to sources, in that meeting, all the Congress leaders expressed their desire to contest more seats than the CPM. Nepal Mahato, the leader of the Congress in charge of the panchayat elections in the state, said, “We have told the Congress workers to get ready to field candidates in 80 percent seats. The remaining 20 percent seats will be seen. It has been seen that in the past alliance with CPM did not benefit. Tripura was lost by alliance recently. Karnataka was won by fighting single-handedly. So why is there so much headache about the alliance? There is no use in making false claims. But I am not ruling out the alliance.”
The CPM has taken a strong stand against this position of the Congress. CPM central committee member Sujan Chakraborty said, “Whether it will be 80 percent or 40 percent, it will be decided by Gram Bangla. We did not demand that the Congress became weak in West Bengal after the defeat in Uttar Pradesh and Punjab!”
Trinamool State Secretary and Spokesperson Kunal Ghosh said, “The party that killed so many people, people will never accept the alliance with it.”
Who will sit in the driver’s seat?
2016 year Assembly electionsIt was the first time that the Left and the Congress contested the polls in alliance, winning 77 seats. After this, in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, even though the seat deal collapsed at the last minute, the Left did not field candidates in Baharampur and Malda South against the Congress. In 2021, there was an alliance between the Left and the Congress. It includes ISF.
But historically the Left and Congress have not won a single seat in the state assembly. The myth that Malda, Murshidabad is the center of the Congress is practically washed away. Congress eventually won the Sagardighi Assembly by-election in 2023. Byron Biswas of Congress won from Sagardighi with the support of CPM.
But, right now Panchayat ElectionsWho will sit in the driver’s seat? Who will ride? This is the question that is now circulating in the political circles.
