Learning from Bihar loss, Cong zeroes in on winnable seats in Bengal

Learning a lesson from its Bihar experience, the Congress high command has instructed its Bengal unit to be realistic while bargaining for seat-sharing with alliance partner, the Left Front.

At a virtual meeting, on Saturday (December 27), the AICC instructed the state leadership to make district-wise ground-level assessment to ascertain winnable seats, the state Congress sources said.

The high command further asked the Pradesh Congress to prepare a “realistic list” of constituencies where the Congress should put up candidates and send the same to it by January next year for seat-sharing discussions with the Left Front leadership.

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The instructions essentially indicate, unlike in the past, the Congress central leadership this time will directly negotiate seat sharing with the alliance partner and that it will not drive a hard bargain.

Significantly, the party sources said, the AICC has also put a “gag order” on the party’s state leadership, restraining them from making any public comment on issues pertaining to the number of seats the party would like to contest and chief ministerial face of the alliance.

The dictate comes days after the state leaders at a meeting with AICCC observer for the state Jitin Prasada in Kolkata earlier this month told him that the party should seek a minimum of 140 seats, according to a senior Congress leader. The West Bengal assembly has 294 seats.

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Some leaders had even proposed that the party state president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, who is also the leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha, should be the chief ministerial face of the alliance.

The AICC is of the view that the party should contest in 110 to 115 seats in West Bengal, the Congress leader told The Federal on the condition of anonymity.

The Congress had made a hard bargain and managed to contest in 70 seats as part of the RJD-led Mahagathbandhan in the 2020 Bihar assembly elections despite not having strong candidates in most of those constituencies. Ultimately, the party could win only 19 seats.

The Congress’s poor performance affected the Mahagathbandhan’s prospect of forming the government.

Ever since the Congress’s interim president Sonia Gandhi endorsed the Congress-Left Front alliance in the state last week, the AICC had been super cautious to ensure smooth sailing of the partnership, the Congress leader said.

“The AICC does not want to repeat the past mistakes and so it wants to directly supervise the seat sharing and other crucial negotiations,” the Congress leader said.

Despite the high command’s nod, the Left Front- Congress alliance did not materialise in 2019 parliamentary elections because neither the Left Front nor the Congress was willing to let go Raiganj and Murshidabad parliamentary seats.

In the 2016 assembly elections the Congress had a half-hearted alliance with the Left. They had fielded candidates against each other in 28 constituencies, creating confusion among their workers.