The CPM-led Left Front has written to the Congress, urging it to finalise the names of candidates for the upcoming bypolls in West Bengal, in the next two days. The Left Front has agreed to support the Congress on two of the three Assembly seats in West Bengal that are going to bypoll on November 25. It will support the Congress on North Dinajpur district’s Kaliaganj and West Midnapore’s Kharagpur Sadar Assembly constituencies. On the other hand, the Congress has proposed to support the Left on Nadia district’s Karimganj seat. In the letter to the Congress, the Left Front said they want to finalise the candidates’ names on October 30 or 31. On Tuesday, the CPM-led Left Front decided to hold a meeting with the West Bengal Congress leadership to discuss the campaign for the upcoming Assembly bypolls in the state, besides modalities of a joint movement. According to sources in the Left Front, it was decided that a meeting would be held with the Congress leadership where several aspects of the joint movement, a common minimum programme and modalities of joint announcement of candidates for the November 25 bypolls will be held. “We will soon hold a meeting with the Congress, probably by end of this week. Several aspects and modalities of seat-sharing and joint movement will be discussed,” a senior Left Front leader said after the meeting ended late in the evening. The Congress and CPM had in August sealed a seat adjustment for the upcoming bypolls to three Assembly constituencies in West Bengal to stop the march of the BJP and ruling Trinamool Congress in the state. Of the three seats, two are traditionally Congress stronghold. Kaliaganj is identified as late Congress leader Priyaranjan Dasmunshi’s home turf. In the 2016 Assembly election, the Kaliaganj seat was won by Congress’ veteran leader Pramatha Nath Ray. After his death in May this year, the seat fell vacant. Though Kharagpur Sadar was also traditionally a Congress stronghold, BJP state president Dilip Ghosh won the 2016 poll, defeating seven-time Congress MLA Gyansingh Sohanpal. Ghosh’s elevation as MP this Lok Sabha elections necessitated the bypoll. Similarly, Karimganj was a left bastion, but TMC candidate Mahua Moitra won the 2016 polls. She too went on to win the Lok Sabha election this year, leaving the seat vacant. After the announcement of the bypolls last week, Pradesh Congress Committee chief Somen Mitra wrote to the Left Front, seeking support for the Kaliaganj and Kharagpur Sadar constituencies. But, Opposition leader Abdul Mannan had reportedly written to Congress president Sonia Gandhi, urging her to support the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) in the Kharagpur Sadar seat to defeat the BJP. The development comes in the backdrop of the BJP making deep inroads in Bengal and placing itself as the main challenger to the ruling Trinamool Congress by pushing the traditional Congress and Left Front to distant third and fourth positions respectively. The BJP in 2019 Lok Sabha elections bagged 18 out of the 42 Lok Sabha seats in the state, only four short of the TMC. The TMC’’s tally has come down from 34 in 2014 to 22 seats in this election. The Left Front has drawn a blank and Congress tally came down from four to two in Bengal. The CPM and Congress had forged an alliance in Bengal in 2016 Assembly polls, but it failed to evoke much impact. —with PTI
