West Bengal By Election 2024: The alliance of Congress and Left parties has broken in the by-elections being held on six assembly seats in West Bengal. For the by-elections to be held on November 13, the Left parties have declared their candidates on five seats, while the names of the candidates on the sixth seat will also be announced soon.
Congress has not yet fielded its candidates on these seats but the party is busy in announcing the names of the candidates. After the Left parties announced their candidates, it has become clear that the paths of both the parties have parted ways during the by-elections. During the Lok Sabha elections, Congress had formed an alliance with the Left parties, but in the by-elections both will be seen challenging each other.
Left parties fielded candidates on five seats
By-elections are going to be held on six assembly seats of West Bengal on November 13. The six assembly constituencies where by-elections will be held are Sitai in Cooch Behar district, Madarihat in Alipurduar district, Naihati and Haroa in North 24 Parganas, Medinipur in West Midnapore district and Taldangra in Bankura district. The Left Front has declared its candidates for five of these seats.
These include Arun Kumar Barma of Forward Bloc from Sitai, Padam Oraon of RSP (Madarihat), Debjyoti Majumdar of Communist Party of India-Marxist Leninist (CPI-ML) (Naihati), Mani Kuntal Khamrui of Communist Party of India (Medinipur) and Communist Party of India Marxist (CPI-M)’s Debakanti Mahanti (Taldangra). The statement issued by the Morcha said that the name of the candidate for Haroa assembly seat will be announced later.
The alliance between the two has been going on since 2016.
There was an alliance between Congress and Left parties in 2016 and both had decided to contest the assembly elections together. However, after this, during the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, both of them fielded separate candidates. After failing before TMC chief Mamata Banerjee and BJP, both had decided to form an alliance again in 2020.
Congress, Left Front and ISF had contested the 2021 assembly elections together. However, Congress and Left parties could not get even a single seat. ISAF did win one seat.
Despite the alliance, continuous setbacks
Despite the poor performance in the 2021 assembly elections, Congress and the Left had decided to maintain the alliance in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Despite both of them contesting the elections together, good results could not be achieved even during the Lok Sabha elections.
Congress had won one seat while the Left Front could not open its account. During the last Lok Sabha elections, veteran Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Choudhary also had to face defeat. Now after fighting several elections together, the Left Front and Congress have parted ways during the by-elections.
Now the alliance broke in the by-elections
In fact, after continuous failure, the debate has intensified among the left parties as to whether they should contest elections with Congress or not. Many Left leaders believe that the Left Front is suffering losses due to the alliance with Congress.
It is believed that for this reason it has been decided to contest the by-election separately. Congress has not yet declared its candidates for the by-elections, but the party’s state unit has sent the names of possible candidates to the central leadership. Experts say that after the approval of the Central Election Committee, the names of Congress candidates will also be announced soon.
