Face of Nation : Congress leader Abdul Mannan met Sonia Gandhi at her residence in New Delhi twice on Thursday evening and discussed the political situation in the state. Congress president Sonia Gandhi has asked leaders of the party’s West Bengal unit to conduct joint movements with the Left Front against the ruling TMC and BJP, Abdul Mannan said on Friday.
According to Congress sources, Sonia Gandhi’s go-ahead to the Congress-LF alliance is politically significant given the fact that the party is losing ground and Bengal is fast turning into a BJP stronghold.
Mr Mannan said ,”We discussed the political situation with Sonia Gandhiji and she has asked us to conduct joint movements with the Left Front in order to build a public opinion about the proposed LF-Congress alliance in the state. She asked us to conduct joint movements with Left Front against Trinamool Congress and BJP in the state.
“During the meeting she told me that had the Left and Congress alliance been intact after the 2016 assembly polls, the political situation in Bengal could have been different and BJP would have never gained ground in the state,” Mr Mannan, who is also the leader of opposition in West Bengal assembly, said.
During a meeting with West Bengal PCC president Somen Mitra in August, Sonia Gandhi had given her nod to the proposed Congress-Left Front alliance in West Bengal for the upcoming assembly by-polls in the state in view of the party’s dismal performance in the Lok Sabha polls.
It was decided that Congress will contest the Kaliaganj seat in North Dinajpur district and Kharagpur in West Midnapore district, while the CPIM)-led Left Front will contest the Karimpur seat in Nadia district.
Karimpur MLA Mahua Moitra of TMC had won the Krishnnanagar Lok Sabha seat. The Congress and the CPI(M) had come together for the 2016 Assembly polls but had failed to impact TMC’s performance.
Their attempts to seal a pre-poll alliance for the Lok Sabha elections this time failed after they could not agree to a seat-sharing formula.
Both the parties performed poorly with the Congress winning just two seats and losing security deposits in 38 constituencies. The Left Front on the other hand failed to even open its account and lost security deposits in all the 39 constituencies which it contested.
