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Little progress in Congress, Trinamool seat-sharing talks

KOLKATA: With little progress made in resolving the impasse over seat-sharing for the forthcoming polls to civic bodies across West Bengal, the electoral alliance involving two major Opposition parties – the Trinamool Congress and the Congress – has hit a wall even though leaders of both assert that the pact is, in principle, intact.

Elections to 81 municipalities including Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) scheduled on May 30 are being viewed as particularly significant given the crucial Assembly polls due next year.

There has been, so far, little indication that the Trinamool Congress, riding high on successes in various elections in more recent times, has taken any major initiative to break the gridlock over seat-sharing with its smaller alliance partner, the Congress.

A message from the West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee (WBPCC) to Trinamool Congress chief, Mamata Banerjee, on April 13 seeking a date for discussions to sort out differences over sharing of seats for the 141-ward KMC remains unanswered. The last meeting in this regard was held on April 9.

Questions are being raised within a section of the State Congress leadership on the fate of the electoral alliance with Ms. Banerjee yet to show any signs of willingness to sit with State-level leaders of the party to sort out the impasse.

The matter was reportedly raised at a meeting of certain senior Congress leaders with Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee in New Delhi on Monday.

Mr. Mukherjee, who is also the president of the WBPCC, has been insisting on a district-level understanding on seat-sharing between the two parties.

So far such an understanding has been elusive in regard to a large number of civic bodies even as local Congress leaders in some districts are working towards going it alone.

The major bone of contention is seat-sharing for the KMC polls. The Congress has been bent on contesting from 51 wards that include the ones that it holds and those where it had emerged the second largest party in the 2005 elections.

It is, however, ready to make climb-down to around 40 if that helps arriving at a consensus. But the Trinamool Congress so far has remained obdurate.

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