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The latest political flashpoint in West Bengal politics, ahead of the state elections in end March, has come from the "Third Front" in the state. The Front is a coalition between the Left Front, Congress and the Indian Secular Front (ISF) party launched by Furfura Sharif cleric, Abbas Siddiqui.
At a rally by the Front at Kolkata's legendary Brigade Parade Grounds on 28 February, the crowds (in lakhs) were witness to a public spat between ISF's Siddiqui and West Bengal Congress Chief Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury. On stage at the rally, and in the chatter that has followed, it was clear that the Left Front was the wall between Siddiqui and the Congress. Both of them claimed that they have had talks with the Left only and were, therefore, not answerable to any other political force.
The Brigade incident has thrown open the cracks in the Front, trying (albeit bleakly) to make themselves be counted in what has become a bipolar contest between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Trinamool Congress (TMC).
Trouble started as Siddiqui took the stage when Chowdhury was delivering his speech.
Chowdhury was halted by Left leaders who wanted to announce Siddiqui's entry. Live footage from the stage shows Chowdhury first refusing to stop his speech, then denying to continue it, and finally agreeing to finish it on the insistence of senior Left leader Biman Bose.
Thereafter, Abbas Siddiqui launched a scathing attack on the Congress when he took the mic.
He asked his supporters to vote for the Left only, with no mention of the Congress.
"I want to tell all those who love me from the Brigade Ground here, that wherever the Left Front puts up candidates, we will guard our motherland with our blood. We will oust the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its B-team the Trinamool Congress (TMC)", said Siddiqui.
He subsequently explained his stance.
The Congress and the Left Front teamed up for the 2016 state elections. They went solo in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections and have now again come together for the 2021 state elections.
This means that the Left Front will have 202 seats in its share.
Siddiqui recently announced, and later confirmed at the Brigade rally, that the Left had agreed to give 30 seats to the ISF. Since there is no agreement with the Congress, these 30 seats will come from the Left's share.
Siddiqui had reportedly asked for about 80 seats from the Left-Congress combine.
On the other hand, the Congress-Left alliance is not without its hiccups either. The state units of both parties took an inordinate amount of time and negotiations to determine sharing of seats. There's another factor that also haunted them in 2016.
There's speculation that Rahul Gandhi might not be coming to West Bengal to campaign for the elections and his focus will remain largely on Kerala for this very reason.
In 2016, Gandhi shared the stage with Left leaders, including former Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya, in Kolkata, in a show of Congress-Left unity.
However, at that time, he was not a Member of Parliament from Wayanad.
On 4 February, Bengal Congress leader and the party's leader of opposition in the assembly, Abdul Mannan, wrote to the Delhi leadership to approve the state unit's alliance with Siddiqui's ISF.
"The addition of ISF in the Left-Congress alliance may be a game changer in the ensuing assembly elections", wrote Mannan.
He also pointed out that Chowdhury had earlier visited Furfura Sharif and that Mannan himself had started "informal" talks with ISF.
While Siddiqui is eyeing the minority vote in these seats, the Congress is unwilling to cede an inch in its stronghold. As a threat, Siddiqui has also said that he will field candidates from the seats the Congress is contesting if no compromise is reached.
He has further insinuated that he's "heard from a leader of the Congress" that a leader in the party is in talks with both the BJP and the TMC.
"I didn't ask him the name, he didn't tell me the name", said Siddiqui in a television interview.
"Congress’ alliance with parties like ISF and other such forces militates against the core ideology of the party and Gandhian and Nehruvian secularism, which forms the soul of the party. These issues need to be approved by the CWC", Sharma tweeted.
"Congress cannot be selective in fighting communalists but must do so in all its manifestations, irrespective of religion and colour. The presence and endorsement West Bengal PCC President is painful and shameful, he must clarify", he added, launching an attack on Adhir.
Responding to Sharma's comments, Adhir said that no decision was taken by the state unit alone.
"We are in charge of a state and don't take any decision without any permission", he said.
The Third Front with the ISF and the Congress may shift some of the minority vote in the state from Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress, many political pundits have opined. There's no analysis yet, however, on what happens if there's a TMC vs Congress vs ISF contest.
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Published: 01 Mar 2021,10:42 PM IST