Left, Cong discuss seat-sharing formula for 2021 Assembly polls

Kolkata: Top leaders of state Congress and CPI(M) on Tuesday discussed the seat-sharing formula that will be followed in 2021 Assembly election.

The alliance between the Congress and Left did not go well in the 2016 Assembly election. The Left Front had bagged only 32 seats of which the CPI(M) got 26 seats, the lowest since 1972. RSP, Forward Bloc and CPI got 3, 2 and 1 seats respectively. Congress on the other had got 4 seats. After the results of the Assembly election was declared the Politburo of CPI(M) had issued a written statement saying that the alliance was "not in consonance with the decision of the Central Committee of the party."

In 2019 Lok Sabha election except Bikas Bhattacharya who had contested from the Jadavpur Parliamentary seat as a CPI(M) nominee, the deposit of all the Left Front candidates had been forfeited. Large section of CPI(M) voters had shifted their allegiance to the BJP. On Tuesday Rinku Naskar, CPI(M) coordinator of ward 102 of Kolkata Municipal Corporation ( (KMC) joined the BJP.

The Assembly election in 2021 is a do or die battle for CPI(M) and if it fails to put up a proper fight, the party will be wiped out from Bengal. Currently, the party does not have a candidate either in Lok Sabha or Rajya Sabha.

Meanwhile, the BJP on Tuesday divided Bengal into five zones with five leaders. These leaders are Sunil Deodhar, Vinod Sonkar, Dushmant Gautam and Harish Diwedi. Gautam will look after Kolkata. Amit Malviya will look after the IT cell.

Reacting sharply Saugata Roy, Trinamool MP said: "This has exposed the inefficiency of the state leaders of the BJP."