Uncertainty looms over Congress-Left Front alliance for 2026 Bengal polls amid seat-sharing tussle

Kolkata, Sep 6 (IANS) Fresh uncertainty is clouding the prospects of a Congress-Left Front alliance for the 2026 West Bengal assembly elections, as non-CPI(M) allies within the Front have raised contentious demands over seat distribution. 

Recently, a meeting of the various Left Front allies was held to discuss the possibility of a seat-sharing agreement with Congress for the 2026 Assembly polls. In the meeting, two of the four main allies in the Left Front -- the All India Forward Bloc and the Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) -- strongly raised their objections to having a seat-sharing agreement with Congress.

At the same time, said an insider from CPI(M) present at the meeting, Forward Bloc demanded 34 seats, the number which the party contested in 1977, when the CPI(M)-led Left Front came to power in West Bengal for the first time, and then continued for the next 34 years till 2011.

Similarly, RSP leadership demanded 23 seats that they would wish to contest in 2026.

Another Left Front ally, CPI, gave a more diplomatic proposal. Their representative said at the meeting that although they were not against any-seat-sharing agreement with Congress in 2026, 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 total number of seats in the West Bengal assembly is 294.

Although officially, the leaders of none of the Left Front allies were willing to spell out what else transpired in the meeting, CPI(M) veteran and the Left Front Chairman in West Bengal, Biman Bose, said that the issue of settlement on the seat-sharing agreement with Congress would require more discussions in the coming days.

In fact, the currently influential section of the state Congress unit in West Bengal too does not seem to be interested much in having a seat-sharing arrangement with the Left Front in 2026.

"The general mood of the party workers in West Bengal is that Congress contests alone in 2026. However, the final decision lies with the AICC high command,” said the state Congress President in West Bengal, Suvankar Sarkar.

The Congress-Left Front seat-sharing agreement started in West Bengal in the 2016 state assembly polls. It continued in the 2021 state polls and 2024 Lok Sabha polls. However, there was no seat-sharing agreement between Congress and the Left Front in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

--IANS

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