Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday met CPI(M) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury has led to speculations about the duo’s possible deal for the Lok Sabha Elections 2019 in West Bengal. Rahul’s meeting with Yechury comes days after Rahul extended support to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on the latest issue of CBI vs West Police Standoff. As Mamata Didi ends Dharna; MHA wants disciplinary Action against West Bengal Police Top Brass
Mamata Banerjee led Trinamool Congress in West Bengal have over the years emerged as the strongest forces, while Bhartiya Janta Party has managed to gain some ground in few years and maintained themselves as the number two in the state. While Congress and CPI(M) have been mainly sidelined in the state politics.
Sources familiar with the minutes of meetings claimed that the two discussed a wide range of issues and briefly touched upon the subject of a pact in West Bengal. Reportedly, Both leaders said they would prefer to wait for reports from their state units before taking any decision.
The Congress and CPI(M) had formed an alliance for the 2016 West Bengal Assembly election. Congress and CPM ended up winning 44 and 26 seats respectively in the 295-member Assembly. The Left parties together had won 32 seats.
In 2014 Lok Sabha Polls, both Congress and CPI(M) opted for local level understanding. However, it is claimed that for the 2019 Lok Sabha Elections, both the sides wanted to have a full-fledged alliance.
During CPM’s Party Congress meeting in Hyderabad in 2018, an understanding with the Congress had been approved, but a political alliance had been ruled out.
Congress and the CPM continue to be rivals in Kerala where the BJP has had no success so far.
“The polarisation between the Trinamool and BJP had started long ago while the CPI(M) remained in a mode of denial. Now the solution can’t be an alliance, Left needs to do something more than adjusting seats with the Congress to resurrect itself in Bengal,” said economist Prasenjit Bose as reported by Hindustan Times.
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