Bengal Assembly bypoll: CPM stitches alliance with Cong

The CPI(M)’s and Congress have clinched a pre-poll alliance in the coming Maheshtala Assembly by-elections in Bengal.

Loath to give the ‘Maheshtala alliance’ any mega publicity apparently to preempt intra party uproar from the minority pro-Prakash Karat group, the CPI(M) is approaching the issue with caution, sources said.

“There are still parallel views which if discussed now will no good to the electoral cause to defeat both the Trinamool and the BJP which is our main goal as of now,” said a Marxist leader. This is why Left Front chairman and CPI(M) politburo member Biman Bose kept his statement brief, he maintained.

“We had a discussion with the Congress and they have accepted our proposal to support our candidate Prabhat Chowdhury,” Bose said. The elections will be held on May 24.

Mahestala in South 24 Parganas adjoining Kolkata fell vacant following the death of local Trinamool Congress MLA. Her husband and local municipal chairman Dulal Das is contesting on TMC ticket.

Though Das is the father in-law of powerful Trinamool satrap, former South 24 Parganas district TMC president and Kolkata Mayor Sovan Chatterjee the much talked about matrimonial suit between Chatterjee and his wife tends to make things rather tentative for the Bengal ruling outfit, insiders say. The local Trinamool leadership however is “not bothered” about who is allied with whom. “We don’t bother about strange bed fellows. Let them also bring the BJP in the alliance, still the Trinamool Congress will win as the people here will not vote for any party or the candidate but they will vote for their leader Mamata Banerjee. Wherever you go in Bengal to fight the TMC you will find Mamata Banerjee and her list of development standing in front of you.”

On whether the rebuilding of Left-Congress chemistry — after the alliance failed to show any result in 2016 Assembly elections — would have any impact in 2019 general elections, Congress’ Manoj Chakrabarty said those who only see the so-called grand win of the Trinamool fail to appreciate the low margin that they won by.

While the alliance won 77 out of 294 seats the TMC won a whopping 212 seats but at the same time it just managed to barely scrape through in about 70 seats by a wafer-thin margin of 150 to 4,000 votes which in itself tells the story, Chakrabarty said reminding “had we won the 70 seats we would have formed the Government.”