New Delhi: A complete lack of clarity from the party high command on whether to contest the West Bengal polls alone or tie up with the Left or Trinamool Congress has left the Congress floundering in the state. As a result, its leaders have been unable to mount a campaign even as the BJP and TMC have moved swiftly into election mode.
It is learnt that in recent months, a large majority of the Bengal Congress’s office-bearers, including its district presidents, have, in separate meetings, conveyed to the leadership that they are not only opposed to any proposal to tie-up with the TMC, but are also in favour of discontinuing the party’s decade-old electoral alliance with the Left Front.
However, the Congress high command has not yet taken a call on the matter. What has added to the confusion is Sudip Roy Barman—appointed as the All India Congress Committee (AICC) senior observer for the polls in West Bengal—identifying the BJP as the “main enemy” in his first meeting with the party’s state office-bearers, sources told ThePrint.
“While Sudip Roy Barman did not explicitly say anything on alliances, people who attended the meeting walked out with the interpretation that the high command could be exploring the idea of seat-sharing with the TMC. After all, a senior observer is expected to speak the high command’s voice,” said a senior West Bengal Congress functionary.
On its part, the TMC has already announced that it plans to go solo. The CPI(M), on the other hand, announced Sunday—following a meeting of its Central Committee—that the “party will work for the defeat of both TMC and BJP, which are trying to polarise society” and “will try to rally all the forces ready to work against them”, suggesting it was open to tying up with the Congress.
“There is not a single leader in the Congress’s West Bengal unit who is willing to accept any understanding with the TMC,” said a top West Bengal Congress leader. “When it comes to the Left, there is a section commandeered by two senior Congress leaders including Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury and Pradip Bhattacharya that has always batted for an alliance. But the large majority of leaders and workers are advocating the need to go solo.”
The leader further said: “In any case, clarity is the need of the hour. Once that comes, potential candidates can at least chalk out their plan to campaign or raise funds.”
While the Congress had partnered with the TMC in 2011, when the Left Front was dislodged from power after 34 years of uninterrupted rule, it joined hands with the Left within five years. Since 2016, the Congress has fought two assembly elections and one Lok Sabha election as an alliance partner of the Left, only to remain a struggling, marginal force in state politics.
In 2011, the TMC, then part of the UPA, won 184 seats, while the Congress secured 42 seats in the 294-member West Bengal assembly.
In 2016, after joining hands with the Left to unseat the TMC, the Congress won 44 seats, more than the CPI(M)’s 26. However, in terms of vote share, the Congress secured 12.25 per cent, compared to the CPI(M)’s 19.75 per cent. The TMC romped home, winning 211 seats with a vote share of 44.9 per cent.
There were unsuccessful attempts to stitch together a Left-Congress alliance for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Eventually, the Congress went solo, winning just two of the 40 seats it contested, with a vote share of 5.67 per cent—a clear reflection of the party’s nearly eroded organisational strength, as it was the first election it contested alone since 2006.
However, in the 2021 polls, the Congress once again stitched up a seat-sharing pact with the CPI(M), joined this time by another party—the Indian Secular Front (ISF) led by an Islamic cleric. Both the Congress and the Left drew a blank in the polls, making way for BJP as the principal opposition party in the state.
The Congress, which had contested 91 seats, secured only 2.93 per cent of the vote, while the Left Front got 9.32 per cent, having fielded candidates in 138 constituencies. In the 2024 general elections, the alliance continued, yet again returning a blank for the Left and one seat for the Congress, with the contest turning bipolar between TMC and BJP.
“What have we gained through these repeated partnerships with the Left? Initially it made sense as the Left still had a significant booth-level presence and resources. What do we gain by piggybacking on them now? It will only help the BJP campaign against us in Kerala where the Left is our principal rival,” a Congress leader argued.
For now, not many are hopeful of a Congress revival in the state, beyond some seats in Muslim-dominated Malda and Murshidabad districts. The recent return of former Malda North Congress MP Mausam Benazir Noor to the party from the TMC rekindled some hope in Congress quarters that it may make its presence felt in the region that it once dominated.
(Edited by Gitanjali Das)
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