Left-Congress alliance ‘in disarray’; Trinamool Congress eyes clean sweep
Kolkata: Speculation is rife in political circles about the unravelling of the Left Front-Congress alliance in Bengal, especially after Monday’s turn of events where the Left announced its candidates for bypolls in five of the six Assembly seats, sparking fresh doubts about the future of this electoral bonhomie which has so far failed to make any significant impact in previous elections in the state.
By-elections will take place in six Assembly seats — Naihati, Haroa, Midnapore, Taldangra, Sitai and Madarihat on November 13.
The Left has announced its candidate for five seats and it was learnt that it may leave the Haroa seat for ISF. However, the ISF during the LS polls did not join hands with the Left.
For the Left Front, Arun Kumar Barma (Forward Bloc) will contest from Sitai while Padam Oraon (RSP) will contest from Madarihat. CPI(ML) Liberation’s Debajyoti Mazumdar will contest from Naihati; CPI’s Mani Kuntal Khamrui from Midnapore and CPI(M’s) Debkanti Mahanti from Taldangra.
After announcing their candidates list for 6 seats, the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) and its main rival BJP have already started campaigns. TMC has set a target of winning all six seats.
It is now a challenge for the BJP to retain its seat Madarihat as they failed to win a single Assembly seat in Bengal by-elections which have taken place after the 2021 Assembly elections.
The TMC during the 2021 Assembly elections won 5 out of these 6 seats except Madarihat where BJP won.
The Congress-Left alliance here appears to be collapsing, as the state Congress has reportedly shortlisted candidates for all six seats and sent it to the party high command.
With the Left-Congress set to go solo here, the split in Opposition votes could significantly benefit TMC ahead of the 2026 Assembly polls.
The Congress’s past tie-ups with the Left had upset TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee, also an INDIA bloc constituent. She had refused to enter into a seat-sharing agreement with the Congress for the Lok Sabha polls in Bengal.
Significantly, in the just concluded Haryana Assembly elections, the Congress failed to strike a seat-sharing deal with the AAP but agreed to give one seat to the CPI(M), indicating the high command’s tilt towards the Left.
But in the case of Bengal bypolls it is going to be a different ball game altogether, political analysts believe. They think that barring a few places, Bengal may ‘mostly see a bipolar bypolls’ this time.
Another indication of this was the change in leadership of the state Congress unit replacing Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, a vocal critic of Mamata Banerjee, with Subhankar Sarkar.
The bypolls in six seats have been necessitated in these six Assembly seats as the elected MLAs here contested the Lok Sabha polls and won from their respective constituencies.
