Bengal Congress Rejects Alliance Talk for Civic Body Elections
Kolkata, October 24: The West Bengal Congress has decisively ruled out any seat-sharing arrangement for the civic body elections scheduled for next month in seven urban local bodies. The party has not agreed to any understanding with the Trinamool Congress faction led by Mamata Banerjee, the Left Front led by the CPI(M), or any other party.
According to sources in the West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee (WBPCC), the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress faction had hinted informally at a possible seat-sharing deal. The state Congress top leadership, however, dismissed the idea.
The state unit's leadership maintains that the forthcoming urban body polls are not a suitable setting for trying out such a partnership.
State Congress chief Subhankar Sarkar said any seat-sharing agreement for the upcoming municipal elections would be pointless. He said recent experience has shown that local body polls frequently become a formality because of the joint influence of the ruling party and the state administration.
"This time too, the picture will not be different," he said. "BJP candidates are likely to win in most wards across these seven civic bodies by using their clout. The BJP could then claim that people spontaneously backed it against a united opposition. Therefore, urban civic polls are not the right occasion for a seat-sharing experiment."
The CPI(M) leadership has also spelled out its stance. Even though the party is a member of the INDIA alliance nationally, the Left Front will contest the local body elections independently and will not divide seats with any other party.
A member of the CPI(M)'s central committee, who requested anonymity, said there was no question of seat-sharing with any Trinamool Congress faction. He also said an understanding with the Congress was not desirable at this stage, since the party sees the urban civic polls as the best test of its organisational strength.
Separately, the Democratic Trinamool Congress, led by Ritabrata Banerjee, has said it will fight the upcoming urban civic elections without any pact with any party.
Meanwhile, a group of 20 Lok Sabha members who quit the Trinamool Congress and joined the National Citizens Party of India (NCPI) has shown interest in seat-sharing with the BJP for the municipal elections. The group describes itself as part of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA).
The elections to the seven urban bodies, including the Kolkata and Howrah Municipal Corporations, are tentatively planned for the last week of November, with results likely in the first week of December.