An unhappy Congress is awaiting the return of its president Sonia Gandhi from London — where she had gone to deliver the annual Commonwealth lecture — to take a final view on the seat-sharing arrangement with the Trinamool Congress for the West Bengal Assembly elections.
The mood in the party, gauged from those involved in the seat-sharing process, is that the Congress should not accept the current offer of the Trinamool, which unilaterally announced on Friday its list of 228 candidates, giving the Congress time till Monday to accept the 64 seats allotted to it.
Pradesh Congress president Manas Bhuiyan, who flew into Delhi on Saturday evening, told The Hindu : “We are in a positive mood, but we want a rational attitude taken to both the number and quality of seats. Also, all our sitting MLAs should be re-nominated…”
Another senior functionary involved in the talks said that while the number — between 70 and 75 — as well as the quality of seats was important, it was the numbers that the party should focus on.
Officially, the Congress is adopting a cautious line. “This is a new situation... new development. The central leadership will discuss the issue in detail and then take a decision,” Congress Working Committee member in charge of West Bengal Shakeel Ahmad told journalists.
Congress sources said only after Ms. Gandhi returned on Sunday evening, would there be some forward movement. They expressed the hope that by Monday — or the latest Tuesday, i.e. after Holi festivities are over — the stalemate would end, and they would have a list of candidates.
The sources said there would be another round of negotiations between Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee and Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee to resolve the differences. They, however, added that while the party would continue to push for more seats — and seats of its choice — they were aware that the Congress could not afford to take the tough line it did with the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam for the elections in Tamil Nadu.
With the Left on the downslide in West Bengal, the Congress would like to be part of the team that ends 34 years of the Left rule. Ms. Gandhi, the sources added, knew this and was very keen on the alliance going through.
