Kolkata, February 5 (IANS). Congress on Thursday officially announced that it will contest independently on all 294 assembly seats in the state in the West Bengal assembly elections to be held this year. The Congress said the party will not enter into any seat-sharing arrangement with the CPI(M)-led Left Front or the Trinamool Congress. This decision was taken in the Congress Working Committee meeting in New Delhi on Thursday.
Party representatives from West Bengal included current state Congress president Suvankar Sarkar, former state Congress president and former five-time Lok Sabha member Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, and Isha Khan Chowdhury, the Congress’ only Lok Sabha member from West Bengal.
After a meeting held at the residence of Congress national president Mallikarjun Kharge in the capital, Congress general secretary and in-charge of West Bengal Ghulam Ahmed Mir announced that the AICC will fight the upcoming assembly elections independently without forging an alliance with any other political party in the state.
Apart from Kharge and Mir, other national level Congress leaders present at the meeting included Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi and KC Venugopal.
Mir said that our past experiences of alliance or seat sharing arrangements in West Bengal have weakened the grassroots level party workers in the state to a great extent. After discussions with everyone, including state Congress leaders, it has been decided that the Congress will contest all 294 assembly seats in West Bengal independently. Keeping this in mind, preparations for the elections will be started.
Adhir Ranjan Chaudhary said that contesting the elections alone is the decision of the high command of the party.
He said that as per the decision of the party’s high command, we will contest the elections independently this time.
Political analysts believe that a smooth seat sharing arrangement for the 2026 West Bengal Assembly elections was looking impossible from the very beginning.
The two main architects of the seat-sharing arrangement between the Left Front and the Congress since 2016 were former CPI(M) general secretary late Sitaram Yechury and former West Bengal Congress president and five-time Lok Sabha MP Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury.
After Yechury’s demise, there is not a single national leader in the CPI(M) central leadership who is vocal in convincing the party’s central leadership for an arrangement with the Congress.
–IANS
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