With the CPI-M Polit Bureau dragging its feet over giving nomination in Rajya Sabha elections to party general secretary, Sitaram Yechuri, state Congress leadership is worried over its equation with the Left Front being upset in the coming civic poll as well as the state Assembly elections scheduled to be held next year.
In the event Yechuri already nominated twice to the Rajya Sabha not getting the party nod a third time, the national leadership of Congress may put up a nominee of its own. In doing so, the AICC asking for support from Trinamul Congress cannot be ruled out as happened last year. In such an event the Congress candidate may not get Left support which will have its fallout in subsequent electoral understanding.
The two parties had come to an electoral understanding in the 2016 Assembly polls as well as the panchayat elections. Though the closing of ranks of these outfits of divergent ideologies did not lead to the ouster of the Trinamul Congress, very little space in the Opposition was conceded to the BJP. The saffron camp more than made its presence felt in last year’s parliamentary elections. Incidentally, the 2019 parliamentary polls witnessed Congress, and CPI-M-led front parting ways widened the scope of the entry of a new entrant in the poll fray – BJP.
This is the reason for Yechuri being the choice of state Congress as the consensus nominee as it would prepare the ground for future poll pacts. The delay in announcing Yechuri’s nomination by his party may prompt AICC to try to increase its strength in Rajya Sabha with Trinamul’s help. Pointing it out, a senior Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader had recently chided his counterpart in the Left Front Legislature Party asking him to end the suspense over Yechuri.
Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha, Adhir Chowdhury, PCC chief Somen Mitra and CLP leader, Abdu Mannan have voiced their support time and again for the nomination of Yechuri whose performance in the Rajya Sabha has been tried and tested. Such unanimous support from Congress may not be expected for any other front nominee.
In the event, the Polit Bureau names a nominee other than Yechuri; a senior CPI-M leader said that all efforts should be made not to upset the Congress- front understanding in subsequent general elections.