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West Bengal

Congress v Congress

What is not, however, is the issues on which Congress dissidents have been speaking out. At the heart of the matter, to paraphrase Mr Sharma’s tweet which led to the brouhaha, is the party’s understanding of “Gandhian and Nehruvian secularism” and the electoral strategy which it has been following to attract the support of various communities to its banner at the hustings.

Stuttering start

It is vital for the above backdrop to be kept in mind when trying to assess the impact of the stuttering start of the ‘third player’ in the March- April eight-phase Assembly poll in West Bengal – the alliance between the Left Front, Congress, and Indian Secular Front led by Muslim cleric Abbas Siddiqui. Siddiqui, a bit player at the state-level and a non-entity nationally, publicly undermined the alliance at its first big campaign rally at Brigade Parade Ground in Kolkata on Sunday when he failed to even mention the Congress.