The seat-sharing discussion between the Left Front, Congress and Indian Secular Front went down to muddy waters after Abbas Siddiqui gave an ultimatum on Tuesday.
While the Left has been accommodative, Congress has taken a strong arm approach in front of the ISF in terms of sharing seats for the grand alliance in the upcoming West Bengal Assembly Election.
The Pirzada warned that if the three parties fail to reach a solution quickly, his ISF would contest the polls alone, reported Bengali daily Anandabazar Patrika.
The Left parties are believed to have compromised 27 seats to the ISF. CPIM alone have spared 20. Congress has so far agreed to sacrifice eight seats to the the ISF.
“We don’t have cut money but we have manpower. That’s why we can create problems anywhere! If everything is sorted by February 28, we’ll bring a sea of people. But without me no one will be there,” Siddiqui said.
At a rally against the new farm laws in Kolkata’s Dharmatala on Tuesday, he further added, “If you accept my friendship I’ll keep you in my heart. But if you stab me then what?”
It was reported earlier Siddiqui’s ISF had demanded a minimum of 45 seats after starting negotiations from 72, asking Congress to sacrifice some of its winning seats in Murshidabad, Malda and South 24 Parganas.
The West Bengal Congress chief Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury then served a stern ultimatum that their won’t be any compromise from its end for seats in Murshidabad and Malda region. They also disagreed to spare seats in South 24 Parganas that they had won in 2016.
Reportedly this hardcore stance from Chowdhury has not gone down well with Congress and Bengal’s main opposition leader Abdul Mannan. The latter has let his disenchantment known in a letter to Congress chief Sonia Gandhi.
The party supremo had directed the West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee (WBPCC) to complete seat-sharing deal by January 31. But with Mannan and Chowdhury failing to reach a consensus, the All India Congres Committee (AICC) may take matters in its own hand now.
In the meantime, the Left Front, Congress and ISF published a joint appeal asking people to joins them for their grand rally at the Brigade parade ground in Kolkata on February 28.
The joint appeal was signed by Left Front chairman Biman Bose, WBPCC chief Chowdhury and ISF president Shimul Soren.
Meanwhile, the Left and Congress had declared earlier that the seat-sharing deal between them was over. But they refrained from announcing the number of seats they would contesting from, keeping in mind the needs for ISF and other parties who are willing to be part of the alliance.