The question of what stance the Congress party should take in the Bengal elections has been a complex issue in Bengal itself, but now Kerala Congress has also given its opinion on this. Considering the seriousness of the matter, Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge and Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi have called a meeting of Kerala Congress in Delhi on January 23. In Bengal, the INDIA alliance has three main parties at the central level: TMC, Congress and the Left. Congress has not yet decided whether it will contest the elections alone or form an alliance with the Left or TMC.
New state president Subhankar Sarkar has expressed his opinion in favor of contesting the elections alone, while former president Adhir Ranjan Choudhary, who is a staunch opponent of TMC, has advocated an alliance with the Left. In this situation, the High Command sought the opinion of all the 33 district presidents to assess the ground reality. According to sources, 30 were in favor of contesting the elections alone, 2 in favor of an alliance with the Left and 1 supported an alliance with Mamata Banerjee’s TMC.
Kerala Congress’s opinion increased the problems of the High Command
Before the High Command could complete its discussion on the matter, Kerala Congress increased the political troubles of the High Command by giving its opinion on the issue. According to sources, the Kerala unit of the party believes that there is a strong possibility of a Congress-led government being formed in Kerala, while in Bengal, the Left-Congress alliance had failed miserably last time amid the fight between TMC and BJP.
Moreover, this time too an alliance with the Left seems unlikely to yield significant results, but if the party forms an alliance with the Left in Bengal, it will have a negative impact in Kerala. First, it will give the BJP an opportunity to strengthen its base by claiming that the Left-Congress alliance in Bengal is just a sham, given their mutual enmity in Kerala.
Second, it will give a wrong signal to a section of the public that the political rivalry between the Left-led government and the opposition Congress alliance is just a sham, and hence, it does not matter who they vote for. This may weaken the support base of Congress. The central leadership is concerned about the ongoing turmoil within the INDIA alliance. The dilemma of the central leadership is that it is already worried about the unrest inside the INDIA block. In such a situation, if he contests elections alone in two big states, the INDIA block will look scattered. Apart from this, the failure to maintain coordination in Bengal may also anger its strong ally at the Centre, the Left Party.
Following voices raised from within the party from Bengal to Kerala on this issue, the high command in Delhi will now hold talks with key leaders from Kerala and Bengal before taking a decision. It seems that he will avoid taking any hasty decision in this matter or imposing his will on the states.