The deadlock over seat sharing with Trinamool is by no means over,but the state Congress is already under pressure from its new allies for a share of the pie. Late on Tuesday night,Siddiqullah Chowdhury,the leader of PDCI and Samir Putatunda,the leader of PDS,met Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee in Delhi and demanded their share of seats. The two relatively new outfits have joined the West Bengal Pradesh Congress as election alliance partners to form the United Secular Democractic Front (USDF). We will demand seats from the Congress share,we discussed the issue, said Samir Putatunda. Siddiqullah Chowdhury said the Congress should leave at least 20 per cent of the seats for other partners in the USDF alliance. If there is a front they should share seats,otherwise there is no reason for holding an alliance, he said. Sources in the Congress said late on Tuesday evening,Mukul Roy,the Trinamool general secretary,gave a list of 58 seats to Pranab Mukherjee. The Congress leaders who had been camping in Delhi are confused,they say they do not know which way the discussion is heading. But a section of Trinamool leaders say this was a deliberate ploy to test the Mamata Banerjees patience and force drastic steps. Such a move will only help the ruling CPM,they feel. All district presidents have strongly stressed that an alliance on Trinamools terms will jeopardise the partys base in the state. But with Trinamool not ready to budge from the 58 to 60 seats it has offered,the issue may lead to a bitter squabble in the run up to the polls. The Congress leaders camping in Delhi are hoping that party president Sonia Gandhi uses the DMK formula to tackle the issue. Moreover,DMK is a party running the government and Trinamool is still to prove themselves in the hustings, said a senior state leader. On Saturday,the finance minister is expected to have a meeting with Mamata Banerjee to finalise the seat sharing. The Congress leaders say the issue will drag on for a few more days.
