West Bengal by-polls: New Congress state president ‘seeking feedback from district heads’ before renewing alliance with Left

“Opinions have been sought from other leaders too… only after feedback on the ground situation, opinions and discussions, will we be able to take a call on the issue,” said Sarkar, speaking over the phone.

“I am yet to get a proposal or hear anything from them,” he added when asked whether CPIM leaders have contacted him.

Meanwhile, Sujan Chakraborty, CPIM central committee member, said, “Our party’s policy is to rally all against BJP in the centre and rally all against the TMC and BJP in West Bengal. There is no change in our stand. It is the right and prerogative of the new state Congress president to seek opinions from his party members and district presidents.”

On November 13, assembly seats of Sitai (Coochbehar district), Madarihat (Alipurduar district), Taldangra (Bankura district), Natihati (North 24 Parganas district), Haroa (North 24 Parganas district) and Medinipur (Paschim Medinipur district) will go for polls.

In the 2021 Assembly elections, five of these seats were won by the TMC and one by BJP. Neither the Indian National Congress nor the Left Front won a single assembly seat, despite contesting together.

“We are in the process of strengthening our organisation. There is an atmosphere of fear. But we will do our best and we still have our organisation in the districts. The law and order situation is bad in the state. We have seen the R G Kar incident and now the Nadia incident,” Sarkar said.

The CPIM, Congress, and Trinamool Congress are all partners in the national INDIA alliance, but in the Lok Sabha polls (held from April to June this year), the Congress and Left fought together against the ruling TMC in West Bengal. The then state Congress president Adhir Chowdhury was vociferous against the Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress.

While the Left could not make a mark, the Congress won just one Lok Sabha seat (Isha Khan Chowdhury from the Maldaha Dakshin seat), while Adhir Chowdhury lost from the Baharampur seat. The Congress had won two seats in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. This year, out of West Bengal’s 42 seats, TMC won 29, while BJP won 12 and Congress won one.

In July this year, the Trinamool Congress swept Assembly by-polls in West Bengal after its candidates won all four seats that went to the polls. In all four seats, the BJP came a distant second while Left-Congress alliance candidates lost their deposits in three of the four seats.