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West Bengal Congress for seat-sharing with Mamata

KOLKATA: The Congress leadership in West Bengal is in favour of seat-sharing on a district-wise basis with its electoral partner, the Trinamool Congress, for the upcoming elections in 82 civic bodies across the State rather than one based on a centralised approach.

Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, who is also the president of the West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee, held a meeting with senior State leaders of the party here on Monday where matters related to seat-sharing with the Trinamool Congress for the civic polls were discussed.

Later, asserting that the Congress-Trianmool Congress remains intact, Mr. Mukherjee told journalists that municipality and panchayat elections have their “own distinctive compulsions” unlike the Lok Sabha and State Assembly elections.

Both parties had agreed to seat adjustments in the Lok Sabha elections last year as well as in the two phases of by-elections for 12 State Assembly seats and for some municipal elections that followed the parliamentary elections.

The forthcoming municipal elections are being perceived as a litmus test for both the ruling Left Front in the State and the Trinamool Congress-Congress alliance ahead of the State Assembly elections due next year.

Asked about the recent visit to Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee by another senior PCC leader Subrata Mukherjee, Mr. Pranab Mukherjee said that visit was mainly to discuss the seat-sharing process and nothing else should be read into it.

Rumours were doing the rounds that Subrata Mukherjee, formerly a Trianmool Congress leader and the Mayor of Kolkata before he fell out with Ms. Banerjee and joined the Congress, visited her with the intention of re-joining the party and seek the mayoral candidature.

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