Forward Bloc attacks Congress over seat sharing

Kolkata: Amid the delay over seat negotiations between the CPI-M, Congress and Indian Secular Front for the Lok Sabha elections, the Left Front's partner Forward Bloc on Sunday lashed out at the Congress and ISF for the fall-out of its understanding during the 2021 assembly elections in West Bengal which did not yield any result.

The Left Front had drawn a blank in the last assembly election, so did the Congress while the ISF managed to win one seat from Bhangar.

Forward Bloc leader Naren Chatterjee said they will continue to contest from their three traditional seats of Barasat, Purulia and Coochebahar and that no negotiations will be done in these three seats. The Forward Bloc has already announced its candidates for these three seats.


Chatterjee added that the Left Front is an alliance that has been tested and examined before. "When the opposition is divided, it helps the ruling party. We don't want division of opposition votes. We are in discussion with the CPI-M. We have not had a discussion with Forward Bloc," Congress spokesperson Soumya Aich Roy said, in response to Forward Bloc's remarks.

"We held a meeting of Left Front today and after a discussion, we will come out with our further (first list already out) list," CPI-M West Bengal secretary Mohammed Salim said today, adding, "We are stitching together all political parties who are against BJP and Trinamool."

The CPI-M is part of the INDIA bloc and is holding seat discussions with the Congress while the latter may come out with its first list for West Bengal tomorrow.

Speaking about the electoral bonds, Salim said, "When CPI-M is speaking about corruption, it involves all parties. Corporate corruption has swallowed political parties," the CPI-M leader claimed.

"Electoral bonds have turned political leaders, MPs, MLAs, CMs and PM into bonded labourers. Cut money has been made into electoral bonds," he added.

Salim said, "We have spoken about corruption for years. We are fighting against electoral bonds. No corporate firm had the courage to give electoral bonds to the CPI-M."