Congress to fight West Bengal polls in alliance with Left front    

The Congress announced on Thursday that it will contest the West Bengal assembly polls, due in April-May next year, in alliance with the Left front.

Addressing the media, West Bengal Congress president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said that the Congress and Left front had fought together against Mamata Banerjee-led TMC in 2016. In 2021 also, both will fight together, he said.

“Grassroot workers of both parties – the Congress and the Left – have been working together in the state for quite some time,” said Chowdhury.

Replying to a question on seat sharing, he said it will be decided later.

West Bengal will go to the polls in April-May for its 294 assembly seats. A party or coalition needs to win more than 147 seats to form the government in Bengal.

Congress sources said the talks for an alliance with the Left front had been on for quite some time, but it got a green signal after Rahul Gandhi’s meeting with the state leadership in November.

Sources said that in the meeting last month, West Bengal Pradesh Congress leaders had unanimously argued for the alliance.

In 2016, the Congress and Left front had together won 76 out of 294 seats in West Bengal after garnering about 38 per cent vote share. The Congress won 44 seats despite having got only 12 per cent of the total vote share, while the Left Front managed to bag 32. The Left Front received 26 per cent of the votes.