As talks on the seat-sharing arrangement with the Left Front in West Bengal fail, the Congress may contest all 42 Lok Sabha seats in the State, alone.
Sources say the Congress high command has finalised a list of 10 probables for the first three phases due in April, on 11, 18 and 23. In six of these seats, the Left Front has also fielded its candidates.
The move, political observers say, makes it more than clear that the proposed seat arrangement has been called off, at least in these 10 seats. This makes it a four-corneredfight between the ruling Trinamool Congress, the Left, Congress and the BJP.
The West Bengal unit’s President, Somen Mitra, is in Delhi to get final approval from the party’s high command for all 42 candidates. As of now, at least 11 probable candidates have been approved.
“Announcements on probable candidates are made by the high command only,” Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, the party’s former West Bengal unit’s President, said.
The 10 seats that will go to polls are Cooch Behar and Alipurduar in the first phase; Jalpaiguri, Darjeeling and Raigunj in the second phase and Balughat, Malda Uttar, Malda Dakshin, Murshidabad and Jangipur in the third phase.
The Left is not contesting Darjeeling (won by the BJP) and three other seats of Malda Uttar, Malda Dakshin and the Jangipur – which were won by the Congress in 2014.
No alliance
Seat-sharing talks between the Congress and the Left Front have had their share of hiccups.
The confusion began on two specific seats, Raiganj and Murshidabad, which both the CPI-M and Congress wanted to contest.
As seat arrangement discussions began, it was said the Left Front would contest 25 of the 42 seats, and expressed its desire to contest another 3-4 more seats.
The Congress had objected to this, leading to talks getting stalled.
To further complicate matters, the Left Front announced its list of 25 probable candidates despite objections from the Congress. Talks were finally called off Sunday evening.
Sources say Congress President Rahul Gandhi is in touch with CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechuri and there could be some attempt at salvaging the seat sharing arrangements. “Maximisation of votes against TMC and BJP in Bengal is the need of the hour. We hope the Congress will keep this in mind at the time of announcing candidates,” Left Front Chairman, Biman Bose said.