Battle for Bengal: Deal through,Cong takes Mamata’s 64 + 1

Seat-sharing talks between the Congress and the Trinamool soured last week after Mamata unilaterally announced her list,giving the Congress only 64 seats in the 294 constituency Assembly.

Soon after Congress President Sonia Gandhi flew in from abroad on Monday morning,she put the contentious seat-sharing issue on fast-track.

Sources had told ‘The Indian Express’ that the Congress high command would abide by Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee’s decision in order to avoid rampant division of the Left vote.

Sources said the Congress was also not likely to irritate its dominant ally in Bengal who is on the threshold of dethroning the Left after its uninterrupted run of 34 years in power.

Sonia Gandhi met Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and her Political Secretary Ahmed Patel on Monday and thrashed out the best way to resolve the issue. The Congress had earlier wanted 90 seats but Mamata resolutely stuck to her 60-odd offer.

After his meeting with Sonia,Pranab Mukherjee spoke to Mamata on the phone and conveyed Gandhi’s views on the issue.

At a press conference later,AICC spokesman Shakeel Ahmed said: “We expect the Congress-Trinamool alliance will give a chance to the people of Bengal to end the misrule of the Left.”

Ahmed also insisted there was “no compromise” in the agreement.

“There is no question of a compromise or a surrender when two parties agree to a negotiated settlement. Everybody should honour it,” Ahmed said.

“Every party wants to contest as many seats as possible but when they sit at the negotiating table,they arrive at a mutually agreed number,” the Congress spokesman argued.

West Bengal Congress chief Manas Bhunia,also present at the press conference,did not reply to questions on whether the local party unit was satisfied with the deal.

Bhunia had earlier given the Congress high command a list of 98 seats,which the local party unit wanted to contest.

“Ours is a national party and I am the state Congress chief in Bengal. I had communicated the views of my people to the party high command. Now a decision has been taken between the central leadership of the parties. The West Bengal unit will abide by it,” was his refrain to repeated questions on whether the deal was acceptable to his state colleagues.

In the morning,Shakeel Ahmed had said the party wanted an alliance with the Trinamool Congress but at the same time was prepared with a contingency plan to contest all 294 seats in Bengal.

Mamata had sprung a surprise on the Congress on Friday by unilaterally announcing her party’s decision to contest 228 seats even though the central party had asked for more time to sort out the seat-sharing angst.

Mamata had given the Congress a deadline till 4 pm Monday to accept her offer. She had warned the Congress that Trinamool would name candidates for those 64 seats too if the ally tried to wrangle a few more.