Congress and Left finalise West Bengal seat-sharing deal

The Congress and Left Front have finally completed the seat adjustment process for the West Bengal Assembly elections on Sunday.

According to the latest reports, the Congress will contest in 88 seats while its associate party will contest in two seats. There will be a friendly contest between the Congress and the Left Front in 7 seats. In addition, both the parties have also decided not to field candidates in 8 seats and announced they would support the candidates of Akranto Aamra (We the victims) and Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) in those seats. The rest of the 189 seats of the 294-strong Bengal Assembly will go the Left Front.

The solution for the seat adjustment process was found after leaders of both the parties held a meeting in the evening at the house of former state Congress president Somen Mitra.

The Congress on Sunday released a list of sixteen more constituencies where it would field its candidates for the Assembly election and declared the names of seven Assembly seats which would witness a friendly contest between Congress and Left Front. Earlier, the party had released a list of 75 constituencies where it would field its candidates. However, responding to the demands of the Left Front, state Congress president Adhir Chowdhrury said it would withdraw its candidate from the Joypur Assembly constituency in Purulia district. As a result the Congress, along with its associate party, will contest in 97 seats in the Assembly election and there will be a friendly-contest with the Left Front in 7 out of 97 seats.

On the other hand, the Left Front has declared its candidates in 200 seats in two phases. Sources said the Left Front would withdraw its candidates from 11 seats one by one to take their tally to 189 seats, which would complete the seat adjustment process with the Congress.

According to the state Congress president, the adjustments in some seats, where the Left Front is yet to withdraw its candidates, will be amicably settled by both the parties. Friendly-contests between both the parties will be seen for the Beleghata, Tapan, Harishchandrapur, Malatipur, Hariharpara, Domkol and Bharatpur seats.

On Saturday, the Left Front announced it would support the GJM candidates in Darjeeling, Kurseong and Kalimpong seats in hills and on Sunday it issued a press note declaring it would also support the independent candidates of Akranto Aamra — a human rights platform in five seats.

Following in the footsteps of the Left Front, the Congress too declared its support for the Akranto Aamra candidates in Tarakeshwar, Domjur, English Bazar, Behala East and Nandakumar seats.