Kolkata: Signalling a rethink about its alliance with the Left, the Congress is preparing to go solo in West Bengal where bypolls are due in six assembly constituencies on 13 November. The state Congress unit has already shortlisted its candidates for all six seats and sent the names to the party high command for approval, ThePrint has learnt.

The apparent rift between the two alliance partners has surfaced a little over five weeks after the demise of CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury, who is believed to have had the ear of Rahul Gandhi.

In the just concluded Haryana Assembly elections, the Congress failed to strike a seat-sharing deal with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), but agreed to give one seat to the CPI(M), indicating the high command’s tilt towards the Left. Another indication of this was the change in leadership of the state unit—replacing Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, a vocal critic of Mamata Banerjee, with Subhankar Sarkar.

Asked about the state Congress sending its list of picks for the assembly bypolls to the party’s central leadership, Sarkar told ThePrint that securing the seal of approval is only a matter of time as the high command usually goes by the state unit’s recommendations.

“We have taken inputs from all district leaders; we have fought in an alliance (with the Left) before, but this time we want to change that road. But so far, we have not received any proposal from the Left, everyone is chalking out their own strategies,” he added.

CPI(M) state secretary Mohammed Salim, asked for comment said, “It’s up to the party to decide the alliance; there has been no formal discussion so far and I cannot say anything since I am out of the country.” CPI(M) leader Surjya Kanta Mishra said he was out of station and would find out about the political developments upon his return.

CPI(M) leader Sujan Chakraborty, on the other hand, told ThePrint, “As a policy, we are clear that all should unite to fight TMC and we maintain this. We haven’t received any formal communication from the Congress. They have a new (state) president and thus it is their discretion how they want to fight byelections, but we are for the alliance.”

The six Vidhan Sabha seats in the TMC-ruled state will go to the polls in the shadow of widespread protests over the RG Kar rape-murder. In 2021, TMC won five of these seats (Sitai, Naihati, Haroa, Taldangra, Medinipur) and the BJP one (Madarihat). The bypolls were necessitated by resignations of sitting MLAs who contested the Lok Sabha elections.

Congress’s Rohan Mitra said Left parties—Revolutionary Socialist Party and All India Forward Bloc—have already made their anti-Congress stand clear and thus the Congress didn’t want to waste more time in sorting its own house.

“BJP and TMC have already announced their list, Congress cannot wait till the last date of nomination. Also because the primary focus of the high command will be Maharashtra, Jharkhand and Wayanad, West Bengal bypolls are secondary at the moment but important to understand the ground reality before 2026 West Bengal elections,” he told ThePrint.

Could this be a balancing act by the Congress? Political analyst Snigdhendu Bhattacharya said, “As Adhir’s replacement with Subhankar Sarkar indicated, Congress doesn’t want to be seen as too antagonistic to TMC. CPI(M) is going and will continue to go all-out against TMC but Congress doesn’t want to. Congress in any case has no prospect in any of these seats and therefore, most likely, did not want to join the CPI(M)’s anti-TMC tirade.”

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Congress-Left alliance in West Bengal

In 2016, the Congress and the Left entered into a pre-poll alliance for the assembly polls. The two, however, could not strike a seat-sharing deal for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

In 2020, the Congress and the CPI(M) revived the alliance in an attempt to challenge the ruling TMC in the assembly polls due the next year. The alliance was announced by then West Bengal Congress chief Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury and also included Furfura Sharif cleric Abbas Siddiqui’s newly floated Indian Secular Front. As part of the seat-sharing arrangement, the Congress contested 92, the Left 165 and the ISF 37 seats. Of the total 294 seats, the alliance was able to win only one seat—Basirhat Uttar (ISF).

Despite its poor showing, the Congress and the Left continued with their alliance in West Bengal for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. The Congress won a single seat, while the Left failed to win any. Then state Congress chief and five-time MLA Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury too lost his seat to TMC’s Yusuf Pathan.

According to political analyst Udayan Bandyopadhyay, the Congress needs to remain steadfast to dispel confusion amongst its supporters ahead of the West Bengal bypolls.

“Congress won one Lok Sabha seat in Bengal, i.e. Maldaha Dakshin. The party got support from the Left. So, it wouldn’t be prudent for them to fight alone. It’s also not moral for people to get accustomed with certain political rhetoric which they might not abandon every now and then. It would be a stupendous instance of political opportunism on the part of the Congress leadership,” he told ThePrint.

Bandyopadhyay added, “However, if they want to change their course of action they must come straight to the people by announcing their actual position in relation to organisational expansion and electoral/moral position. The party must follow one political line for at least five years. Otherwise it would be a juvenile political act.”

The TMC, on the other hand, is treading cautiously. Asked about the possibility of a Congress-Left alliance for the West Bengal bypolls, the party refused to comment till there is an official announcement in this regard. A senior TMC leader who did not wish to be named said, “We haven’t seen any official announcement about the alliance coming apart so we cannot comment at the moment.”

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