lok-sabha-elections

Updated: Mar 05, 2019 09:45 IST

Signalling its urgency to adjust seats with the Congress in West Bengal, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) or CPI(M)’s Central Committee on Monday unilaterally announced that it doesn’t want a contest in the six parliamentary seats in the state (which has a total of 42) that are currently held by either of the two parties.

The CPI(M) has two and the Congress, four. Senior political leaders said that CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury spoke to Congress president Rahul Gandhi before the former took the decision.

They added that Gandhi only told Yechury that he is “trying to convince” his party’s state unit which wants to contest the two CPI(M) seats as well.

For the CPI(M), a seat adjustment with erstwhile rival Congress is crucial to take on the powerful Trinamool Congress and a rising BJP in the state where the Left was in power for a record 34 years. The partnership with the Congress is also important for Yechury and his supporters in the party who have fought the Kerala lobby of the party to keep the doors open for a poll pact in West Bengal.

A senior CPI(M) leader said that the party has conveyed to the Congress that it wants to contest in 20 seats. Its three partners — CPI, Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) and Forward Bloc — may get 9 seats. The rest, 13, will be Congress’s share.

The Congress’s dilemma is whether to accept the Left’s offer in Bengal or ask for more seats. The CPI(M)’s move comes after the Congress lost an opportunity to form an alliance in Delhi. Arvind Kejriwal’s AAP went ahead and announced candidates for six of the seven parliamentary seats in Delhi over the weekend.

During a recent Opposition meeting, Yechury spoke to both United Progressive Alliance chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Congress president Rahul Gandhi, senior party leaders said.

He underlined the importance of an alliance and even reminded Sonia what late CPI(M) general secretary Harkishan Singh Surjeet told her about maximising Opposition seats against the BJP.

The leaders added that while Rahul Gandhi agreed on the importance of alliances, he also pointed out that the Congress needs to fight in many constituencies across states to ensure it ends up getting a large number of seats.

When asked about the change in the Central Committee’s stand vis-à-vis Bengal after opposing seat pacts in the last state polls, Yechury said: “The situation has changed. We decide tactics on based on current situation.”

He added “a triangular fight will be better (for the Left) than a quadrangular contest.”