With reduced strength in the Assembly and inability to send a leader to the Rajya Sabha on its own, the CPI(M) in West Bengal found itself in a catch-22, needing to seek support of the Congress violating the party line.
The CPI(M)-led Left Front has 32 MLAs in the state Assembly. The Congress has 44 MLAs and the ruling TMC has 211 MLAs. Although five Congress MLAs and one Left MLA have switched over to the TMC, they are yet to resign as MLAs of their parent parties.
In the middle of this year, a few Rajya Sabha members from West Bengal will retire and CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury is one of them.
With the reduced numbers, it is next to impossible for the CPI(M)-led Left Front to send a Left nominee to the Rajya Sabha on its own. They have to either depend on the TMC or the Congress to ensure victory of its candidate.
Seeking support of the Congress for its nominee would amount to violation of the official party line that the party had adopted in the last party congress.
However, CPI(M) state secretary Surya Kanta Mishra told PTI, "The elections are in July and we are yet to discuss the matter. We will think over it at the appropriate time."
But a number of other CPI(M) leaders, who spoke to PTI on the condition of anonymity, conceded that the conflict between the party line and the absence of numbers in the Assembly has landed the party state unit into a precarious situation.
"Seeking support of TMC is beyond question, so the only option left is the Congress. But our party line prohibits us from aligning with the Congress. In the upcoming state committee meet we will discuss a way out," a senior CPI(M) state committee member said.
After the humiliating defeat of the Left-Congress alliance in the last Assembly poll, the CPI(M) politburo in May, last year had said that the electoral tactics evolved in West Bengal were not in consonance with the central committee decision not to enter into an alliance or understanding with the Congress party.
Another CPI(M) state committee member said, "If you
want a CPI(M) nominee to go to the Rajya Sabha from Bengal in future, you need to change the approach."
Asked if the party will consider seeking support of the Congress in the next Rajya Sabha polls, party politburo member Hanan Mollah said, "There is a state committee meet next month. If we get a proposal from the Bengal unit we will discuss it."
On the other hand, the Congress in Bengal is too apprehensive of supporting the CPI(M), but left the matter to the party's high command to take a decision.
"It is the CPI(M) which first walked out of the alliance. In the recent by-polls, they had fielded candidates on their own without consulting us. We will want a Congress nominee from Bengal. But it is for our party's high command to take the final call," a senior state Congress leader said.