Political

Soon after the festivities are over, the Left Front is set to sit on seat sharing with its allies further as a preparatory arrangement for the 2026 Assembly Elections.

 

In the first week of September, the LF partners, though, had sat across the table on the issue, but that failed to yield any effective outcome. The CPI-M allies like the All India Forward Block and the Revolutionary Socialist Party had disagreed to accommodate the Congress in the alliance, citing reasons that the alliance with the Congress in 2016 and 2021 Assembly Elections had failed to garner mass support and rather had injured even the dedicated LF vote bank substantially.

 

The AIFB and the RSP had placed demands for larger seats, which the CPI-M had disagreed.

 

While Forward Bloc demanded 34 seats out of a total 294 seats of the West Bengal Assembly, the demand of RSP was for 23 seats. Another Left Front ally, CPI, said that although they were not against any-seat-sharing agreement with Congress, they would not settle for seats, which might be fewer than the front leader CPI(M), but more than the number of seats allotted to the other two allies, namely Forward Bloc and RSP.

 

“The Left Front Chairman Biman Bose too felt that demands for seats by the other LF allies were irrational if the seat-sharing talks with either Congress or AISF had to even start. This is why he said after the initial meeting that the issue of settlement on the seat-sharing agreement with Congress would require more internal discussions within the LF. Once the festive season is over, the initiative will start again to convince the allies to be more flexible,” said a state committee member of CPI(M) in Kolkata today.

 

Asked about probable ally with the ISF, the leader said: "The seat adjustment modalities will be prepared after the next meeting. This meeting will purely be about the adjustments within. Then we will discuss about the Congress and the ISF." The ISF meanwhile has remained tight-lipped on the issue. One top leader of the Secular Front, however, said: "The LF should be our natural ally, and our bond is healthy, as it seems." Asked how many seats the ISF may bag, the leader said: "We alone contest even in 50 seats now, so if the LF grants 10 seats, we would rather be happy."