Kolkata, Oct 1 (IANS) A crucial meeting of the different allies of CPI(M)-led Left Front in West Bengal is expected to take place after the ongoing festive season on seat-sharing arrangement with Congress and All India Secular Front (AISF) ahead of the assembly elections.

The urge for achieving a smooth seat-sharing arrangement is mainly on the part of the CPI(M) leadership, who want the meeting with the other Left Front allies to happen at the earliest to convince the latter to be more flexible as regards their demands for the number of seats they would like to contest as a Left Front ally in 2026.

A similar meeting on the seat-sharing arrangement took place in the first week of September. In that meeting, two Left Front allies, namely All India Forward Bloc and the Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP), not only raised objections about a seat-sharing agreement with Congress but also raised demands for such numbers of seats to contest in 2026, accepting which would mean the end of possibilities of even beginning the arrangement talks either with Congress or with AISF.

While Forward Bloc demanded 34 seats out of the 294-seat 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.

“Left Front chairman Biman Bose too felt that demands for seats by the other Left Front 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 Left Front. 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).

The 2021 West Bengal assembly polls for the first time witnessed a three-cornered seat-sharing agreement involving the Left Front, Congress, and AISF.

In the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, although the arrangement between Congress and the Left Front continued, AISF contested independently from select seats.

–IANS

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