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Left, Congress, ISF finalise seat-sharing deal for Bengal polls

Left parties have taken the largest chunk, followed by Congress with 92 and ISF with 37. However, the seat-wise distribution is yet to be revealed.

SNS | Kolkata | March 4, 2021 2:17 pm

Left, Congress, ISF finalise seat-sharing deal for Bengal polls

The Left Front, Congress and Indian Secular Front on Thursday have finally reached a solution over their seat-sharing deal for the upcoming West Bengal state assembly elections.

Following marathon talks, spanning over a month, the three stakeholders finalised the number of seats each would contest. With 165 seats, the Left parties have taken the largest chunk, followed by Congress with 92 and ISF with 37. However, the seat-wise distribution is yet to be revealed.

Among the Left Front, CPIM would alone give candidates in 130 constitutencies. Forward Block will field 15 and RSP 11 candidates. CPI will contest in 9 seats.

After the seat-sharing deal between the Left Front and Congress was finalised, talks between the Left and ISF were also sealed soon.

The problem remained over the seat-sharing between the Congress and the ISF, as the negotiations between two parties were still underway and Congress didn’t want to concede seats that it had won in the last election.

The Congress last time had contested 92 seats and won 44 in which about 20 MLAs crossed to the ruling TMC. The Congress is the second-largest party in the outgoing Assembly holding the Leader of Opposition post.

The Congress-Left-ISF alliance wants to make the Assembly polls a triangular contest and not only between TMC and BJP. The saffron party has also placed itself as the main Opposition after winning 18 seats in the Lok Sabha polls.

The TMC is eyeing a third term in West Bengal, however, many leaders including close aides of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee have switched sides to the BJP, even as the saffron party is upbeat about the polls and central leaders of the party are visiting the state frequently.