Cong, CPI(M) share seats for Bengal bypolls after Lok Sabha debacle

Kolkata: The Congress and the CPI(M) have sealed a seat adjustment for the upcoming bypolls in three Assembly segments in West Bengal to stop the march of the BJP and the Trinamool Congress in the state.

The state leadership of the two parties decided in a meeting late on Friday that while the Congress will contest North Dinajpur district's Kaliaganj seat and West Midnapore district's Kharagpur seat, the CPI(M)-led Left Front will fight Nadia district's Karimpur seat.

"The Congress will contest two seats and the CPI(M) will fight on one. Our alliance will bring a new dawn in Bengal politics. Together, we will defeat the communal politics of BJP and TMC," West Bengal Congress president Somen Mitra said.

The CPI(M) leadership, however, termed it only as a "seat adjustment" but was hopeful of halting the BJP's march in the state. The Kaliaganj seat fell vacant after the death of sitting Congress MLA Parmathanath Roy while Kharagpur's BJP MLA Dilip Ghosh won the Medinipur Lok Sabha constituency.

On the other hand, TMC's Karimpur MLA Mahua Moitra emerged victorious in the Krishnnanagar Lok Sabha seat. The Congress and the CPI(M) had come together for the 2016 Assembly polls but failed to impact the TMC performance.

Their attempts to seal a pre-poll alliance for the Lok Sabha elections failed after they could not agree to a seat- sharing formula. Both the parties performed poorly in the Lok Sabha elections, with the Congress winning just two seats and losing security deposits in 38 other constituencies.

The Left Front failed to win a single seat, losing security deposits in 39 constituencies. On the other hand, the BJP won 18 of the 42 Lok Sabha seats, only four behind TMC's 22 seats.

Since its impressive performance, the saffron party is now targeting to unseat the TMC from power in the 2021 Assembly elections.

The ruling party in West Bengal, on the other hand, is trying to turn the tide back to its favour after witnessing a sharp dip in its 2014 Lok Sabha election tally of 34 seats to 22 seats this general election.