‘Cannot get worse’: Why Congress has ditched Left in Bengal, will contest Assembly polls alone

While sources said the TMC’s offer of two seats was unacceptable, All India Congress Committee ‘s(AICC) Bengal in-charge Ghulam Ahmad Mir said: “Discussions were held over the Congress’s roadmap for the Assembly elections. All leaders gave their opinions. The leadership’s view was that the party will contest the Bengal polls alone this time. The national leadership stands with the state’s leadership’s decision.”

In the 2016 and 2021 Assembly polls, the Congress contested 92 seats in alliance with the Left. While it managed 44 seats with a 12.25% vote share in 2016, it drew a blank five years later and saw its vote share fall to 3%. Sources said in the meeting, leaders from Bengal told the high command that the Congress had not been able to revive itself in the state for the past two decades due to its dependence on alliances, adding that a decision on the CM face would be taken after the results are announced. By going alone in the polls, the party will be hoping to attempt a revival of its grassroots network.

Admitting that the party’s alliance with the Left did not yield results, Congress observer for the Bengal polls, Sudip Roy Barman, told The Indian Express that the decision to contest alone was taken with an eye on the future. “We could not win even a single seat in 2021. It cannot get worse than this and hence we have decided to contest alone,” he said.

Left hits back

The Left too does not seem keen on a tie-up with the Congress. While the party has cited the Congress’s falling vote share and referred to it as a “liabilility” in Bengal, CPI(M) state secretary Md Selim said in Kolkata Thursday, “We want all anti-TMC and anti-BJP forces to unite but we have learnt that the Congress is in talks with the TMC. Hence, we are not expecting any alliance with the Congress.”
The decision to go it alone in the polls has seemingly cleared the air for the state unit of the Congress, which saw itself divided on the question of an alliance. While a section of the party, including Bengal Congress president Subhankar Sarkar, pressed that it should shed political expediency keeping in view its long-term revival and not forge an alliance, another section believed that it had little option but to tie-up with the Left to be seen as a contender in the otherwise two-cornered fight.