Leader of the West Bengal unit of the Congress party met the high command, including national president Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi, at Kharge’s residence in New Delhi on February 5, 2026. Photo: X/@INCIndia
West Bengal elections 2026: Congress to go solo after 20 years
Refusing to go with either the TMC or the Left, the Grand Old Party decides to contest alone, an idea that its high command backs and hopes to see the party gaining strength
After forging alliances while going to polls in West Bengal over the years, the Congress is all set to contest the upcoming elections in the state alone.
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Last time the party went solo in Assembly elections in the state was in 2006, when it had won 21 seats. In 2011, it joined the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in a successful mission to dethrone the entrenched Left, securing 42 seats.
From 44 to zero seat in five years
In 2016, the Congress went into alliance with the Communist Party of India (Marxist)-led Left and won 44 seats. In the last Assembly polls in 2021, the Grand Old Party again went with the Left, but failed to open its account.
Congress to go solo in Bengal polls
- Congress will not form any electoral alliance in West Bengal for the first time in years, ending a 15-year run of alliances with either the ruling TMC or the Left; the decision has backing from Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi.
- The party’s electoral journey has declined sharply: 21 seats in 2006 (solo), 42 in 2011 (with TMC), 44 in 2016 (with Left), and zero seats in 2021 (again with Left).
- The 'going solo' decision was finalised after a high-level meeting in Delhi on February 5, where state leaders and the high command agreed that the Congress should fight alone in Bengal to rebuild the party.
- Congress leaders say alliances haven’t helped: they accuse the Left of draining resources and not transferring votes, and accuse the TMC of showing a “high-handed” attitude, making a partnership difficult.
- KC Venugopal, a top leader of the Congress, reportedly saluted the state unit over its decision to fight alone.
The decision to go alone this time has received the nod from the party high command, including national president Mallikarjun Kharge and senior leader and the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi.
On Thursday (February 5), leaders of the state unit of the Congress held a long meeting with the top brass at Kharge’s 10 Rajaji Marg residence in New Delhi to make strategies for this year’s elections.
'Received Rahul Gandhi's backing to go solo'
Confirming that the high command green-signalled going solo in the upcoming polls, Isha Khan Choudhary, the party’s only MP from Bengal, told The Federal, “We have got the blessings from Rahulji to go solo for the election in Bengal.”
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The leader, who is a former MLA in the state, added that Rahul is in favour of strengthening the party’s structure in the Bengal, where the last time it had a chief minister was in the 1970s.
The Congress’s Bengal in-charge, Ghulam Ahmad Mir, told The Federal that the high command concluded that the party should go solo in the state in the upcoming polls after it was briefed about the ground report and received feedback from the state leaders.
“We held a marathon meeting for two hours with high command. Every member gave his advice. It was almost unanimously decided that the sentiment of the Bengal people has to be respected, where the public wants Congress to fight alone,” he said.
Mausam Benazir Noor, a former Congress MP who had left it to join the TMC but returned to her old party recently, was also seen at the meeting.
Though the party doesn’t harbour much hope about the Bengal results, its insiders agree that contesting the election alone is the right step towards rebuilding the party.
Sources part of the meeting told The Federal that the Bengal leadership told the leadership in consensus that they wanted to go alone.
Also read: West Bengal elections: Congress split over solo run or alliance
“It was Rahulji who asked us whether TMC had approached us (Bengal's Congress unit), to which we replied in the negative. We told him that we had an apprehension that Mamata Banerjee might have approached the high command in Delhi, to which he (Rahul) said there was no such thing,” the sources added.
Why Congress won't go with Left
As per the party insiders, the decision of not going with the Left this time is embedded in the fact that the state unit feels that it “only sucks the resources” from the Congress and doesn’t support the seats where it has to support the alliance partner.
“Left drains funds of our candidates. They want to hold their party at our cost. Also, we have seen there is no transfer of votes from the Left to us. As such, having an alliance with them is meaningless,” a senior party functionary told The Federal.
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Although the party insiders accept that the TMC was the “first choice” to have an alliance with in Bengal, the latter’s alleged superiority complex has discouraged them.
Accuses TMC of high-handedness
“Mamata Banerjee’s party thinks that we (Congress) are in no position to bargain. Her nephew Abhishek recently said that the Congress should unilaterally support them (TMC). It is fine that you are strong at your home, but it cannot be like that you bulldoze others,” the leader told The Federal.
The Federal also learnt from the sources that during Thursday's meeting, the Congress General Secretary (Organisation), KC Venugopal, who was also present in the meeting, said he “salutes the guts of Bengal leaders”.
