Congress eyes 100 seats from Trinamool

In an attempt to prepare ground for bargaining of seats in the Assembly elections,state Congress president Manas Bhuniya today held a meeting with 22 of the 24 district presidents of the party and discussed the seats on which the party can contest.

The Congress district president of Malda and Murshidabad were not present in the meeting today. According to sources in the party,the Congress is likely to demand at least one seat from each of the 42 Lok Sabha constituencies in the state. Seeking its presence across the state even in South Bengal where Trinamool had not given any seat to Congress during the Parliament elections in 2009,the party is likely to demand about 100 of the 294 Assembly seats from its coalition partner.

The Congress high command has asked its state unit to send a list of seats which the Congress is keen to contest. The exercise undertaken today was an attempt to ascertain the list of Assembly segments. Congress district presidents who were present at the meeting today said they are keen on a coalition on honourable terms something which the Congress high command had stressed earlier.

“We do not want a situation of 2001 when more than a dozen of the sitting Congress legislators were denied seats,” said Mala Roy,district president,after emerging from the meeting.