The Congress central leadership on Thursday gave “formal approval” for an alliance with the Left in Bengal for the Assembly polls, the party’s state unit chief and MP Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said.

Chowdhury, in Delhi, took to Twitter to announce the party’s decision. “Today the Congress High command has formally approved the electoral alliance with the Left parties in the impending election of West Bengal,” he tweeted.

The development has been on the cards as leaders of the Bengal Congress unit had held multiple meetings with Left Front representatives in the past few months to clear the decks for an alliance.

Chowdhury told the media in Delhi that negotiations for seats would now start. “The people of the state are completely fed up with the ceaseless slanging match between Trinamul and the BJP. The state is yearning for freedom from this ugly political warfare...and the Congress-Left would emerge as the obvious alternative,” he said.

Dismissing the BJP’s claim that they would come to power with 200-plus seats, he said: “The BJP has this false perception that they can replicate the performance of the parliamentary election. This is not going to happen.”

Some state Congress leaders said while they welcomed the announcement from New Delhi, they were upset that it came a bit late in the day. “It is December-end...The state goes to polls by April. We should have done it before,” a Congress legislator said.

A source said Chowdhury spoke about the alleged delay to Rahul Gandhi on Thursday morning while they were on their way to meet President Ram Nath Kovind.

“Adhirda said the ground is prepared, but it is important that the high command officially announces the alliance at the earliest,” this person added. Later Chowdhury received a call from the Congress leadership to make an immediate announcement.

The central committee of the CPM — the largest partner of the Left Front in Bengal — had approved the alliance in October.

CPM legislator Sujan Chakraborty acknowledged the Congress’s official announcement should’ve come earlier but added that with the formal nod from AICC, the alliance will be stronger.

The Left and Congress had fought the polls together in the 2016 Assembly polls but managed to win only 76 out of 294 seats. Back then, leaders from both parties alleged a lack of clarity over the alliance and that it didn’t trickle down to grassroots workers. “We don’t want any confusion this time. Everyone in the party, from top to bottom, will fight hand in hand with the Left this time,” a state Congress general secretary said.