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The Congress is exploring its options for poll-bound West Bengal and could decide to go alone in the Assembly elections in the state with no talks held so far for alliance with Left parties, party sources said here on Thursday.
Sources said several leaders in the Bengal party unit are keen that the party goes alone in the polls as it has been weakened by contesting polls mostly in alliance for over decades. They said there is still no clarity on the party's stance even as Trinamool Congress and BJP have plunged into the campaign. The sources said that the party is likely to fight the forthcoming polls on its own. The Left-Congress-Indian Secular Front (ISF) alliance had performed very poorly in the last polls, winning only one seat. The BJP emerged as the main opposition party in the state, which had long been dominated by the Left and the Congress. Congress sources said that a section of the Bengal unit feels that the party will not be able to grow in an alliance and will be decimated in areas it has not contested for a long time. They feel that the party should use the forthcoming assembly polls, likely to be held in March-April, to build its base across the state. The Left parties and Congress-led UDF have been the main contenders for power in Kerala, which will also go to the polls in the first half of this year. The BJP has in the past taunted Congress for fighting polls in alliance with Left parties in Bengal and fighting against them in Kerala. The Congress earlier this month appointed senior leader BK Hariprasad as the chairperson of the screening committee for West Bengal. The political atmosphere in Bengal is charged amid allegations and counter-allegations between the BJP and the ruling Trinamool Congress over the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls, and ED searches at I-PAC premises. A final decision on the poll strategy in Bengal is expected to be taken by the Congress leadership in the next few days. (ANI)
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