CPI-ML (Liberation) announced on Thursday that it would contest in 12 seats in the Bengal Assembly polls and support any party that could defeat the BJP in other constituencies.

The assertion was in sharp contrast to the stand of the Left Front and the Congress, which held another round of inconclusive meeting on seat sharing between them.

“We will contest in 12 seats in the state. We shall also lend support to some select candidates fielded by other Left parties or mass organisations,” said CPI-ML (Liberation) general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharyya.

“Across the state, we will urge voters to defeat the BJP,” he added, indicating that the party didn’t have any inhibitions in supporting Trinamul to keep the BJP at bay.

He also said his party would extend issue-based support to Trinamul.

Bhattacharya had earlier said the Left parties in Bengal must identify the BJP as their “primary enemy”, which triggered an intense debate among the Left constituents in the state and the CPM leadership lost no time in debunking the CPI-ML (Liberation) leader’s theory.

On Thursday, Bhattacharya, however, reiterated that his party — unlike the CPM — didn’t equate the BJP and Trinamul and explained why he thought so.

“One cannot distinguish between national and state politics. We don’t think the BJP and Trinamul should be viewed as equal threats,” Bhattacharya said adding that this ideological difference led them to take a call on not being a part of the greater alliance proposed by the CPM.

There was no formal reaction to the CPI-ML (Liberation)’s stand till late evening.

A senior state CPM leader, on condition of anonymity, told this correspondent that it appeared that the CPI-ML

(Liberation) had started a campaign in favour of Trinamul.

“This (CPI-ML (Liberation)) party once said Trinamul is better than the CPM. Today, they are saying Trinamul is better than BJP. Are they running a secondary campaign for Mamata Banerjee?” a CPM leader asked on condition of anonymity.

This person added that the Left parties maintained that Trinamul was as dangerous as the BJP.

Even as the alliance partners stuck to their stand on the BJP and Trinamul, their differences over seat sharing for the Assembly polls persisted.

After a meeting with the Left front leaders on Thursday, state Congress president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said a consensus had been reached on sharing 193 seats, including the 77 seats they had earlier decided to share amongst themselves.

However, a Left leader said the announcement meant little as the seats were not identified.

“We just had a consensus on the number, 193. But the problem still remains. What about the seats where both Congress and left have strongholds?” this leader asked.

Sources in the Congress said the state leadership was unwilling to give away any seat in Malda and Murshidabad districts to the Left parties, hinting that an amicable seat sharing was still out of reach.

The two hues have, however, decided to hold a joint public meeting at the Brigade Parade grounds in Calcutta on February 28, where Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi and CPM’s Sitaram Yechury were invited.