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Cong plans to keep distance from ISF as part of new strategy
Instead, the party is keen to emphasize that it has no truck with ISF and that the latter is just a partner of the Left bloc, Congress leaders said.
The Congress in West Bengal is keen to calibrate its campaign to avoid any proximity with the Indian Secular Front, the party of cleric Abbas Siddiqui, and one of the members of the larger grouping of which it is a part.
Instead, the party is keen to emphasize that it has no truck with ISF and that the latter is just a partner of the Left bloc, Congress leaders said.
The Congress and the Left Front have, for the first time, forged a seat-sharing agreement for the West Bengal assembly election that starts from March 27. But the inclusion of the ISF in the grouping, albeit in a seat-adjustment with the Left, has embarrassed the Congress and prompted it to revise its strategy. The party has already come in for some friendly fire for allying with the ISF.
Party leaders insist that Congress will contest around 90 seats and there will be no understanding with Siddiqui in these constituencies. “The Congress’s demand for seats in West Bengal has been fulfilled. A large front, a secular front has been created with the Left,” said senior Congress leader Abhishek Singhvi.
According to two Congress leaders who did not wish to be named, while a section of the state Congress was open to an understanding with Siddiqui, state unit chief Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury was not. At a mega Left rally in Kolkata on February 28. Chowdhury and Siddiqui didn’t even exchange pleasantries and the Congress leader’s speech was interrupted when Siddiqui took the stage.
Chowdhury is a five-term MP from the Muslim-dominated Murshidabad district. His supporters say there is no reason why the Congress should make space for another party in its traditional bastions. Chowdhury chose to stay away from the last seat-adjustment meeting between the allies on Monday, even though he was in Kolkata.
In strategy meetings in Delhi as well as in Kolkata, Congress leaders have spoken about focusing the campaign on issues such as joblessness and the state of the economy rather than on personalities. The party isn’t comfortable with the religious pitch of the ISF. “There will be no joint campaign with ISF. Neither will we seek votes for them, nor will they be asked to support us,” said a senior Congress leader.
Some Congress leaders are also upset with senior Congress leader Anand Sharma’s tweets such as the one that said the “Congress’ alliance with parties like ISF and other such forces militates against the core ideology of the party”. They believe these were ill-timed and damaged the party. “He didn’t know the basic facts. We have no alliance with ISF,” added the Congress leader cited above.
Analysts say the nuance the Congress wants to convey — it is part of the grouping that includes the ISF, but it no truck with the party — may be lost on voters.
