Kolkata: With simply two days to go for the Trinamool Congress’s 31 December deadline for a choice on seat-sharing in West Bengal, the Opposition’s 28-party INDIA bloc seems no nearer to resolving the deadlock.
At an INDIA bloc assembly on 19 December, TMC supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee — backed, in line with get together sources, by the Aam Aadmi Get together (AAP) and Samajwadi Get together (SP) — had set the deadline for her get together, the Congress, and the Left entrance to reach at a seat-sharing settlement in West Bengal. The state has 42 parliamentary seats, of which the TMC had received 22, the Bharatiya Janata Get together (BJP) received 18, and the Congress received 2 within the 2019 normal election.
The TMC has been trying to play a number one position throughout the INDIA bloc.
Nevertheless, on 21 December — two days after Mamata’s deadline — a delegation from the West Bengal Congress unit led by its chief Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury met the All India Congress Committee (AICC) to place forth its reservations about allying with TMC, mentioned Congress leaders reached by ThePrint.
In line with TMC sources, the get together is prepared to half with not more than two seats. However this seems to be unacceptable to the Congress, with a senior chief of the Bengal Congress telling ThePrint that Chowdhury has even expressed his willingness to battle solo in Bengal. The senior chief additional mentioned that an inner evaluation confirmed that the Congress can provide a robust battle in a minimum of 9 seats, of which it’s prone to clinch 5.
West Bengal Pradesh Congress chief Subhankar Sarkar, who attended the assembly, advised ThePrint that the Bengal Congress has acknowledged its organisational weak spot within the state. However with the parliamentary election knocking on the door, nothing a lot could be achieved about this, he mentioned.
“We don’t have time and we need to defeat the BJP. Since we are part of the INDIA platform, we must respect our allies and formulate the best possible way to take this fight forward,” Sarkar mentioned.
However he additionally hinted that the Congress, which sees Mamata’s get together because the principal purpose for its decimation within the state, was reluctant to have an alliance with the TMC.
“In the meeting, we were asked about how the Congress stands in Bengal, and we told our leadership that organisationally we are weak but can fight solo,” Sarkar mentioned, however added that the state unit would go along with no matter its nationwide management decides.
However even when the TMC holds its deadline as “non-negotiable”, there’s one other main hurdle to the seat-sharing talks — the rivalry between Mamata’s get together and the Left Entrance, specifically, with the Communist Get together of India (Marxist). This strife, which dates again over a decade, implies that the CPI(M) sees the TMC — the get together that ended over three decades-long communist rule within the state in 2011 — as its principal rival.
Barring just a few joint protests in Parliament — corresponding to over the 13 December safety breach in Parliament and the following suspension of 146 opposition MPs from the Winter Session — the 2 have by no means seen eye-to-eye over something.
A senior CPI(M) politburo chief advised ThePrint that the get together counts each the BJP and TMC are its political rivals.
ThePrint reached TMC spokesperson Kunal Ghosh through calls and textual content messages. This report will likely be up to date if and when a response is acquired.
Nevertheless, a senior TMC MP who didn’t need to be named advised ThePrint that the get together will determine its subsequent step if no seat sharing numbers are mentioned by 31 December. “It’s likely to be a virtual meeting. The TMC has also made it clear that it is in a commanding situation in West Bengal and Congress should settle on their terms for the state,” this chief mentioned.
Political observers imagine it might be troublesome to deliver the TMC and the CPI(M) collectively. “The Congress and the TMC can easily join hands but it would be difficult for the Left Front to form an alliance with TMC in West Bengal as they have been fighting each other over a number of issues on the ground,” political analyst Udayan Bandopadhyay advised ThePrint.
“The Congress leaders are also equally vocal, but their central leadership is with Mamata Banerjee. (Whereas) the central leadership of CPI(M) has categorically denied any alliance with the TMC in West Bengal,” Bandopadhyay additional mentioned.
In the meantime, Congress’s nationwide alliance committee — the five-member panel instituted particularly for seat-sharing negotiations with its different allies — met the get together’s West Bengal management Thursday, ThePrint has learnt. Get together sources mentioned that this assembly got here after the Congress’s Nagpur rally and that comparable discussions are at present underway for different states.
The panel will submit detailed suggestions to Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and seat-sharing talks are anticipated to start out subsequent week, the sources mentioned.
When requested about seat-sharing in West Bengal, a senior national-level chief advised ThePrint: “We are ready to compromise”.
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Inconceivable alliance?
Earlier than the 2021 West Bengal meeting election, the Congress formally allied with the CPI(M) and the Indian Secular Entrance (ISF), a two-year-old get together that fought the election beneath a logo it borrowed from the Rashtriya Secular Majlis Get together, a Bihar-based political get together. The alliance’s efficiency was abysmal — of the three, solely the ISF managed to win any seat (Bhangar in South 24 Parganas) out of West Bengal’s 294.
The Congress and the CPI(M), in the meantime, noticed their vote shares dip to an all-time low — whereas the latter secured 4.8 % votes, down from 20.1 % within the earlier election in 2016, the previous’s went to three % from 12.4 %. This was the primary time that neither Congress nor CPI(M) had an MLA within the meeting.
The TMC, alternatively, swept the election with 213 seats whereas BJP, with 77 seats, emerged because the principal opposition within the state.
In line with West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee Convener Amitava Chakraborty, the get together’s alliance with the Left entrance has been accepted all through the state and poses no threats. The TMC, nonetheless, is a distinct story — the get together, he mentioned, had demolished the Congress’s organisational energy within the state. Due to this fact, allying with it “wouldn’t send the right message to the party workers”, Chakraborty advised ThePrint.
“It’s the TMC that has set a 31 December deadline, we’re not in a hurry. We haven’t deliberated on seat-sharing numbers so far. The TMC cannot set the terms on how the Congress will function,” he mentioned, though he too added that the Bengal unit will “follow the orders of AICC”.
On account of the resistance from the state unit, there’s no headway in seat-sharing, with Congress’s Rajya Sabha MP Pradeep Bhattacharya, who needed to skip the Delhi assembly attributable to in poor health well being, telling ThePrint that there have been no additional conferences held to debate the problem.
However the TMC too seems eager to offer no floor. Whereas addressing a public programme at North 24 Parganas Thursday, Mamata mentioned that solely the TMC may help battle the BJP in Bengal. “INDIA bloc will fight the BJP across India. But in Bengal TMC will fight. Only TMC can teach BJP a lesson in Bengal and show the path to the country,” she reportedly mentioned.
In line with Snigdhendu Bhattacharya, a political analyst and creator of ‘Mission Bengal: A Saffron Experiment’, the Congress can both go along with the Left or the TMC “but there is no possibility of the CPI(M) and the TMC coming together”.
“Despite the CPI(M) identifying the BJP as a greater danger than any regional party at the national level, their Bengal vote bank is essentially anti-TMC, possibly more anti-TMC than anti-BJP,” he advised ThePrint.
With inputs from Amogh Rohmetra
(Edited by Uttara Ramaswamy)
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