Taking the electoral understanding between the Congress and Left Front a step further, the West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee (WBPCC) on Tuesday made public a list of 75 seats for the upcoming Assembly polls. The list did not include any of 116 seats that Left Front had announced candidates for on Monday, indicating that a formal “understanding” between the Left Front and the Congress was in place.
Releasing a list of 116 candidates, Left Front chairperson Biman Basu said on Monday that they had entered into an “electoral understanding” with the Congress, which is not “an alliance or a Front.”
WBPCC President Ahir Ranjan Chowdhury also clarified that while the Left and the Congress have entered into a “seat sharing arrangement”, they are not in a formal alliance with a common minimum agenda. Mr Chowdhury pulled no punches to clarify that he was not happy about an arrangement which was “half-hearted.”
“If we would have come together properly and conducted a joint campaigns the result would have been much better. But some of them [Front members] have problems with us, though we [Congress] do not believe in political untouchability,” he said. Without naming the Left Front chairperson, Mr Chowdhury said there was “no point playing hide-and-seek game when the talks between the two parties are [taking place] in full media glare.”
No candidates yetOn why the Congress only announced the seats and not the candidates, Mr Chowdhury said the decision on selection of candidates would be taken by All India Congress Committee in Delhi.
However, Mr. Chowdhury declared one candidate, albeit unofficially.
