Trinamool sticks to seat formula,state Cong hints at climbdown

Other than one-third of 294 seats – that comes to 98 — the Congress has demanded one seat from each parliamentary constituency and an equal division of good and bad seats.

According to a report prepared by state leaders,the 294 Assembly seats have been divided into good and bad. It has dubbed 193 seats good seats and 101 difficult to win. The Congress wants one-third of each kind.

As for its demand for seats from each parliamentary constituency,Congress leaders said that in the 2009 Parliament elections,the Congress did not get any seat in North and South 24 Parganas,Burdwan,East Midnapore,West Midnapore,Hooghly,Howrah and Kolkata. This had reportedly done great damage to the party base and therefore,the Congress was pressing for representation in all constituencies.

The Congress got about 13.75 per cent votes in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections while in the 2006 Assembly elections it got 14.71 per cent votes.

However,despite the negotiations,plans and homework,the stand of both the parties was evident from the statements given by state Congress chief Manas Bhunia and Mamata before leaving for Delhi to give final touches to the seat-sharing deal.

“We are the state unit of a national party. We have submitted our proposal after discussing with the district president. Our high command will take a final call and we will abide by it,” Bhunia said.

Mamata said,“We have an alliance at the national level. We will be abide by it. It’s a small issue.”

While Mamata left for Delhi on March 2,Bhunia flew to Delhi with other Congress leaders on March 3. Other than giving a good number of seats to the Congress in Malda and Murshidabad – the two districts where Congress has a stronghold — Trinamool is not relenting.

Even in Uttar Dinajpur,where Priyaranjan Dasmunshi’s wife Deepa has a strong influence,Trinamool does not seem willing to give too many seats.

Other districts where the Congress is going to get a considerable number of seats are Purulia and West Midnapore – the Maoist-affected districts where Trinamool has not much representation.

Sources in the Congress said that Trinamool had agreed to give a ticket to Abhijit Mukherjee,Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee’s son,from Nalhati in Birbhum. Subhra Ghosh,a relative of Pranab,is likely to get a seat from central Howrah.

Trinamool looks like it will concede the Congress demand that all 18 sitting MLAs should get seats.