Kolkata, April 11 (IANS): CPI(M), as the leader of the Left Front in West Bengal, has decided to go more flexible to avoid a mutual contest between Congress and the junior allies.
As part of the compromise formula the CPI(M) leadership has decided to forgo its stake for Kanthi Lok Sabha seat in East Midnapore district. Instead, party insiders said, Congress has been requested to forego its stake for the Ghatal constituency in the adjacent West Midnapore district where junior Left Front ally CPI has already fielded a candidate.
“As per dialogues with Congress leadership till Wednesday night the latter has in-principal agreed to our proposal. This means that there will not be a single constituency in West Bengal where Congress candidates will be contesting either against CPI(M) or against two other Left Front allies namely CPI and Revolutionary Socialist Party,” said a central committee member of CPI(M) from West Bengal.
However, even after compromise formulas were being worked out, the only hurdle for a total Congress-Left Front seat-sharing agreement has been the fourth Left Front ally, the All India Forward Bloc. The Forward Bloc has refused to compromise on any of the three Lok Sabha constituencies in the state where it used to contest before.
Despite repeated appeals from the CP(M) leadership to forego the stake for Purulia Lok Sabha constituency in support of veteran state Congress leader Nepal Mahato, Forward Bloc has announced the name of its candidate from there.
What was more interesting was that in the case of other constituencies, the names of the Left Front candidates were announced by the Left Front chairman Biman Bose in joint press conferences attended by leaders from all front allies.
But in the case of Purulia, the announcement for the name of the candidate was made by the Forward Bloc independently, which displeased the other allies especially CPI(M) who viewed such an action as disregard for such a senior leader like Bose.
As per the situation as of now, Forward Bloc will be contesting against Congress, besides BJP and Trinamool Congress in two constituencies namely Cooch Behar and Purulia