The Congress on Tuesday agreed to allot seven seats in south Bengal to Abbas Siddiqui’s Indian Secular Front, but reiterated that it would field candidates in not less than 92 Assembly segments.
The consensus over the seven seats was reached at a meeting attended by the leaders of the CPM, Congress and the ISF at the CPM state headquarters in Alimuddin Street on Tuesday.
“We have finalised a deal with the ISF on seven seats in south Bengal,” Congress leader and MP Pradip Bhattacharya told The Telegraph.
“We have made progress in our discussions,” Bhattacharya said adding that the entire picture would be clear in a few days.
Besides Bhattacharya, leader of the Opposition in the Bengal Assembly Abdul Mannan represented the Congress in the parleys with ISF chairman Naushad Siddiqui, CPM leaders Surjya Kanta Mishra and Md. Salim and Left Front chairman Biman Bose.
Although Naushad didn’t wish to disclose the number of seats the ISF had agreed upon, he confirmed that “quite a few seats” had been allotted to his party by the Congress.
“We are in talks with them for a few more in south Bengal,” Naushad added.
Sources in the ISF, a fledgling political outfit founded by a Furfura Sharif cleric Abbas Siddiqui, said the deal so far had been sealed for seven to eight seats. However, Bhattacharya echoed the words of state Congress chief Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury and maintained that the party would contest 92 seats in the ensuing polls. Chowdhury had on Monday said the Congress would not give any seat to the ISF from its share of 92 seats.
Congress sources said even if any of the seats the party had identified for itself was given to the ISF, it would be compensated from the seats that remained undistributed.
The Congress had initially asked for 130 seats from the Left Front and finally, settled for 92, leaving 38 Assembly segments undistributed.
The dispute over the ISF’s claims over Assembly segments in north Bengal remains. However, sources in the ISF said its leadership was willing to take a step back for the sake of the alliance.
“We had demanded 13 seats in north Bengal from the Congress. Since they don’t want to give away all these seats, we are now asking for six seats only,” the ISF source said.
“Congress representatives have told us that they will speak to the higher leadership and let us know on the issue,” the source added.
As most of these seats are in the Congress strongholds of Malda, Murshidabad and North Dinajpur, it remains to be seen whether even the party would spare six seats for the ISF.
Sources in the Left Front said chairman Bose would announce on March 8 the list of candidates for the first phase of polls.
On March 6, a day ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s meeting in Calcutta, the Left Front will hold rallies across the state in protest against the hike in prices of petroleum products and to demand jobs for all. In Calcutta, the procession will be taken out from Subodh Mullick Square to Mahajati Sadan.
