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Bengal Congress to evaluate ground reality in state before seat sharing talks
A Karnataka-based poll strategist has been asked by the central leadership to conduct research in Bengal, a Congress leader said
Kolkata: The Congress central leadership will evaluate the party’s position in several West Bengal districts before taking a call on how to carry out seat sharing talks with Trinamool Congress for the coming Lok Sabha polls, All India Congress Committee (AICC) members from the state said.
On Thursday, when Congress renamed Rahul Gandhi’s upcoming campaign from Manipur to Mumbai Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra and said INDIA coalition leaders would be invited to join it, Bengal Congress president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said his party was not dependent on TMC’s charity.
“Mamata Banerjee has said she will spare two seats (of 42 in Bengal) for us. We won these two seats by defeating her. We don’t need any charity. We reject her proposal,” Chowdhury said in Berhampore, his Lok Sabha seat.
TMC chairperson Mamata Banerjee took a step towards seat sharing last month by deciding not to field any candidate from Berhampore and Malda South. She voiced her offer at a meeting of the INDIA coalition leaders in Delhi on December 19.
Held by Chowdhury since 1999, the Berhampore seat is in Murshidabad district which has Bengal’s highest Muslim population of 66.28 % according to the 2011 census.
In the adjoining Malda district - which has Bengal’s second-highest Muslim population of 51.27% - Congress MP Abu Hasem Khan Choudhury is holding the Malda South seat since 2009.
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TMC fielded candidates from both seats in the past, leading to erosion in Congress votes in a region that it controlled since Independence.
The Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra will pass through 15 states, covering 100 Lok Sabha seats in around two months.
“The Yatra is significant for Bengal where it will cover more than 500 km and pass through seven districts, including Cooch Behar, Malda and Murshidabad that used to be Congress strongholds till 12 years ago. Rahul Gandhi will have a first-hand experience of the response from people. The survey will help Congress decide how many seats it should contest,” an AICC member said on condition of anonymity,
“We have been told that a Karnataka-based poll strategist has also been asked by our central leadership to conduct research in Bengal,” the Congress leader added.
TMC Rajya Sabha member Santanu Sen accused the Congress of delaying the seat sharing process and overestimating its strength in the state.
Sen said: “When seat sharing should be on the top of its priority list, Congress is delaying it every day. Congress should look at the ground reality. It doesn’t have a single legislator in the Bengal assembly. In the 2021 assembly polls, Congress lost in the all the seven seats that comprise Chowdhury’s Lok Sabha segment.”
A section of TMC leaders feel that Banerjee wants to stop BJP from taking advantage of any split in votes cast by the Muslim community which the saffron camp sees as TMC’s vote bank.
Bengal’s Muslim population stood at 27.01 % during the 2011 census and is projected to have increased to around 30 % now. According to surveys done by TMC and BJP, swing in Muslim votes can influence poll results in at least 120 of Bengal’s 294 assembly segments.
