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Bengal polls: Cong yet to form alliance with Indian Secular Front, says Adhir
"Initially, Congress & left alliance was smooth, then Indian Secular Front (ISF) entered into the electoral arena and expressed their desire for an alliance. Left has already forged an alliance with them but Congress still has not been able to do it," Chowdhury said.
Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said that the alliance between the Left parties and the Congress was smooth until the Indian Secular Front (ISF) joined the fray, and while the Left had forged an alliance with them, the Grand Old Party had not been able to do it yet.
"Initially, Congress & left alliance was smooth, then Indian Secular Front (ISF) entered into the electoral arena and expressed their desire for an alliance. Left has already forged an alliance with them but Congress still has not been able to do it," Chowdhury said on Saturday as quoted by news agency ANI.
Led by Pirzada Abbas Siddiqui, the ISF announced on Friday that it had reached a seat-sharing agreement with the Left Front ahead of the West Bengal assembly elections. The Left agreed to leave 30 seats for Siddiqui's party as part of the Left-Congress-ISF alliance.
"We have already sealed our alliance with the Left Front. We have got 30 seats as per our choice and are in talks regarding three-four more," Siddiqui said on Friday.
However, no decision regarding seat-sharing has not been made with the Congress yet. The ISF leader said that it had demanded 70 seats, including that of Nandigram, where chief minister Mamata Banerjee will contest as the Trinamool Congress (TMC) candidate.
"The discussions are still on with the Congress as the seat-sharing deal is still not clear. In total, from both the parties, we had demanded around 70 seats, including the Nandigram seat," Siddiqui said.
He made it clear that the ISF had no intentions of derailing the alliance, and that they would be 'accommodative and flexible'. The party will take part in the mega rally in Brigade organised by the Left and the Congress on February 28.
Siddiqui's party had ditched Asaduddin Owaisi's AIMIM to join the Left -Congress alliance. The party had demanded a few seats from Murshidabad and Malda, where the Congress had won a few seats in the 2016 polls.
West Bengal's 30% Muslim population is a crucial factor in 100-110 seats and CPI(M) leader Tanmoy Bhattacharya said that the election would no longer be a 'two-cornered contest' thanks to the alliance with the ISF.
"The inclusion of the ISF in the alliance has provided an added edge to the third force in Bengal ahead of the polls. We are confident that it would no longer be a two-cornered contest," Bhattacharya said.
West Bengal will have a polling procedure spanning eight phases and stretching over a month, as announced by the Election Commission on Friday, starting March 27 until April 29. The results will be announced on May 2.
(With agency inputs)
