Losing ground in Bengal, Sonia Gandhi asks Cong to campaign with Left

Congress president Sonia Gandhi has asked leers of party's West Bengal unit to conduct joint movement with Left Front against ruling TMC and BJP, senior Congress leer Abdul Mannan said on Friday. 

Mannan h met Gandhi at her residence in New Delhi twice on Thursday evening and discussed political situation in state. According to Congress sources, Gandhi's go-ahe to  Congress-LF alliance is politically significant given  fact that party is losing ground and Bengal is fast turning into a BJP stronghold. 

"We discussed political situation with Sonia Gandhiji and she has asked us to conduct joint movements with  Left Front in order to build a public opinion about  proposed LF-Congress alliance in state. She asked us to conduct joint movements with Left Front against Trinamool Congress and BJP in state," Mannan said.

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"During meeting, she told me that h Left and Congress alliance been intact after 2016 assembly polls,  political situation in Bengal could have been different and BJP would have never gained ground in state," Mannan, who is also leer of opposition in West Bengal assembly, said.

During a meeting with West Bengal PCC president Somen Mitra in August, Gandhi h given her nod to proposed Congress-Left Front alliance in West Bengal for upcoming assembly by-polls in state in view of party's dismal performance in Lok Sabha polls.  leerships of West Bengal Congress and CPI(M) h recently sealed a seat justment for upcoming bypolls in three assembly seats in state to stop march of  BJP and ruling Trinamool Congress.

It was decided that Congress will contest  Kaliaganj seat in North Dinajpur district and Kharagpur in West Midnapore district, while CPIM)-led Left Front will contest Karimpur seat in Nia district. 

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Kaliaganj seat fell vacant after death of sitting Congress MLA Parmathanath Roy, while election to Kharagpur seat is being held as its MLA Dilip Ghosh,  state BJP chief, is now an MP after winning Medinipur Lok Sabha seat.

Karimpur MLA Mahua Moitra of TMC h won  Krishnnanagar Lok Sabha seat.  Congress and CPI(M) h come toger for  2016 Assembly polls but h failed to impact TMC's performance. ir attempts to seal a pre-poll alliance for  Lok Sabha elections this time failed after y could not agree to a seat-sharing formula. 

Both parties performed poorly with Congress winning just two seats and losing security deposits in 38 constituencies.  Left Front, on or hand, failed to even open its account and lost security deposits in all 39 constituencies which it contested.  BJP in an impressive performance won 18 of 42 Lok Sabha seats, only four less than TMC's score of 22  seats. Buoyed by its achievement, saffron party is targeting to unseat TMC from power in 2021 assembly elections.

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