Cong district chiefs call for alliance with CPI(M)

Kolkata: Congress district presidents have strongly argued in favour of having an electoral alliance with CPI(M) before the 2021 Assembly election. A meeting was held between WBPCC president Somen Mitra and the district presidents of the party at Bidhan Bhavan on Friday afternoon.

Talking to newsmen, Mitra said that the district presidents have argued in favour of having an electoral alliance with CPI(M). "But this alliance should be made much ahead of the election, so that people do not think that it is an alliance for electoral opportunity only," he added.

It may be recalled that Congress and CPI(M) had inked an alliance before the 2016 Assembly election, but it did not go down well with the voters and the Congress supporters did not vote for CPI(M) and vice-versa.

As a result, CPI(M) got only 24 seats, their lowest tally since 1972, while RSP, Forward Bloc and CPI got 3, 2 and 1 seats in the Assembly respectively.

In the recently concluded general election, there was no alliance. Congress got two seats while the deposit of all Left Front candidates had to be forfeited except Bikas Ranjan Bhattacharya, who was the CPI(M) candidate from the Jadavpur Lok Sabha seat.