Bengal Congress leaders seek pact with CPI(M) to defeat Mamata Banerjee

KOLKATA: Some Bengal Congress leaders are working as a pressure group to convince the party high command to give them a green signal for striking an electoral alliance with the CPI(M) to defeat Mamata Banerjee.

Important leaders of the pressure group are two former state Congress presidents Somen Mitra and Pradip Bhattacharjee and AICC member and state Congress leader Omprakash Mishra who has recently written a letter to the party chief Sonia Gandhi and vice-president Rahul Gandhi explaining the ground political reality in the state for such an alliance.

Mishra, also a Jadavpur University (JU) professor, stated in his letter that “a Congress-Front seat adjustment with a declared common minimum programme (CMP) would dethrow the Trinamool Congress government and usher in a Congress-Left government in West Bengal with about 170 seats if not more.”

He also analysed results of recent elections held in Bengal and indicated that Congress-Left Front alliance might win 161 of the total 294 seats in the state assembly. Trinamool Congress, according to Mishra's analysis could win 126 seats with BJP 4 and Gorkha Janamukti Morcha (GJM) 3.