Keeping in view the upcoming civic body polls in December, the Left-Front is once again mulling an electoral alliance with the Congress with whom it parted ways after the 2021 Bengal assembly polls, because of which both parties contested the recently fought by-polls individually.
The Left Front and the Congress had last struck an alliance during the Assembly polls in Bengal. However, it was more of a triptych alliance with the addition of the Indian Secular Front (ISF) which caused an apparent rift between the Left and the Congress, with the latter having clearly expressed its discontent over the inclusion of ISF, whose leader Abbas Siddiqui had courted controversy time and again with his remarks that allegedly damaged the secular image of the other two parties.
Though the CPI-M’s central committee meeting recently had deliberated on the possibility of reuniting with the Congress, a clear decision was yet to be seen. However, the Left Front chairman Biman Bose has told media persons that there has been an initial discussion regarding the possibility of a fresh alliance but nothing concrete has come out of it. He confirmed that the Left
Front will be holding a high-level meeting next week to come to a final decision concerning the alliance with Congress.
Sources have claimed that the Left Front and the Congress had already finished the talks for an alliance for the civic polls much before the Bengal Assembly elections. However, with the Covid scenario prevailing, the civic polls were postponed which also brushed the alliance idea under the carpet.
It is further learnt that some of the Left Front (LF) leaders in the state, especially from the CPI-M, has expressed interest in going together with the Congress in the civic polls but other parties in the LF such as the RSP and Forward Bloc were not comfortable with the idea, given the apparent conflicts which surfaced during the Bengal assembly polls concerning fielding of candidates.
Party insiders have stated that some Left Front parties are also not comfortable with the Congress recently costing up to the TMC ahead of the next Lok Sabha poll, and which saw its impact during the Bhawanipore bypoll when the Congress refused to field a candidate against the TMC chief Mamata Banerjee who was contesting from the seat.
Congress leader Pradip Bhattacharya has reportedly declared that the idea of making a pact with the Left Front for the civic polls needs thorough discussion and the Pradesh Congress Committee cannot randomly comment on the matter.
However, Congress too has its apprehensions as it has made it clear that if the electoral understanding is to happen then the Left Front would also have to change its outlook adopted during the assembly polls. Political analysts feel this was a clear reference to the Left Front’s inclusion of the ISF and its “confusion in identifying its main political opponent.”