Congress, BJP to finalise candidates’ list soon amid uncertainty

WBPCC will finalise the list of candidates within a day or two, its president Adhir Chowdhury said on Saturday.

Party leaders on Saturday held a meeting at Bidhan Bhavan where seat sharing with the Left Front was declared in details. Adhir Chowdhury claimed that Rahul Gandhi had given a go ahead to have seat sharing with the Left. However, neither he nor AICC party chairperson Sonia Gandhi will intervene in the matter. CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury had said in Delhi on Friday that there would not be any official alliance with Congress. Chowdhury said that to defeat Trinamool Congress, one to one fight in the state was a “political compulsion for both Congress and Left.” It was learnt that the Congress would demand for 106 seats and after bargaining it will be brought down to 90. CPI(M), however is ready to give Congress only 70 seats. Chowdhury said that the Congress would try its best to have seat adjustment with the Left and was ready to sacrifice some seats.

The Left Front partners will sit on Sunday to prepare election strategy which included seat sharing and on Monday the crucial State committee meeting of CPI(M) will be held. It has been decided that Congress and CPI(M) leaders will not share dais and there will not be any joint manifesto. “The alliance will be based on seat sharing,” Chowdhury said.Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee has termed the alliance as “unholy and unethical.” She said that the alliance would not able to make any dent in party’s poll prospect. Meanwhile, the State BJP leaders will hold a two day meeting on Monday and Tuesday to finalise the list of candidates who be contesting in the Assembly elections. The State BJP leaders are trying hard to stop in fighting. Since Dilip Ghosh took over as the party president, a large number of party workers have stopped working for the party. The district presidents have all been changed and those close to the former president Rahul Sinha, have been sidelined. As Ghosh came to BJP from RSS, he does not have mass contact and has failed to organise the party. This was evident when the party’s national secretary in charge of West Bengal, Siddharth Nath Singh expressed displeasure over the casual approach of the workers in Burdwan. It was learnt that the party had approached Rituparna Sengupta to be a candidate for the party. Roopa Ganguly, Locket Chatterjee and Joy Banerjee are likely to become candidates. The party is trying to convince Purnadas Baul to contest in the election as well. It was further learnt that party’s national president Amit Shah is likely to hold six meetings in the state. The venue of the meetings have not been fixed as of yet. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to address three meetings in Kolkata. State leadership is trying to convince the party’s past president Rahul Sinha to contest the election.