Congress mood against Left tieup

The current mood in the AICC is against a pre-poll alliance with the Left in the West Bengal Assembly polls after realising that the Kerala battle is going to be tough with the LDF this time.

But the Congress is yet to make up its mind whether or not to go alone in West Bengal, as the majority of the state Congress leaders is against a tieup with the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamul Congress.

“How can we go with the Left in West Bengal ” a Congress strategist asked, indicating that the party’s priority is to retain power in Kerala. The party has made chief minister Oommen Chandy the main target in this election. In fact, the Congress has become the common rival of the Left and the BJP, the strategist pointed out.

The Congress’ priorities and strategies are different in the two states where secularism is not an issue. For the Sonia Gandhi-led party, the Left and the Trinamul Congress are its prospective allies against the BJP.

Interestingly, regional parties in the election-going West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Puducherry and even in Assam would not want to allow the BJP to gain space either through pre-poll alliances or tactical understandings after realising how it has treated the Shiv Sena and the Janata Dal (United) in Maharashtra and Bihar. While the Shiv Sena was its ideological ally till the Maharashtra Assembly polls, the JD(U) quit the NDA after realising how hardliners have hijacked the BJP. Currently, the PDP is not keen to share power with the saffron party in Jammu and Kashmir.

Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, who heard views of the West Bengal Congress leaders on alliances here a few days back, will discuss this issue with Mrs Gandhi and others in the coming days. The party is yet to constitute an election campaign committee in West Bengal.