With 2026 Assembly elections inching closer, West Bengal unit of Congress finds itself at a crossroads. It has to make a choice between going for an electoral alliance with the state’s ruling dispensation Trinamool Congress or revive it’s poll pact with the CPI(M)-led Left Front with which it has been hitching it’s band wagon since 2016 Assembly elections.
The Congress leadership both at the state and national level is painfully aware that a poll alliance with TMC will not be a pact with honour.In fact, it will only be rewarded with “crumbs” in an electoral alliaince with the TMC.
Moreover, the handful of pockets of influence which the Congress still retains will be gobbled up by the state’s ruling party. To make matters worse, it is not unlikely for the Congress legislators who have won thanks to TMC support will join the latter.
Now considering the pluses, getting a few seats in the state Assembly could help the Congress begin a journey of revival. And it would be treading a path of political relevance too.
Ever since the declaration of 2021 Assembly poll results, the Congress has been unrepresented the state Assembly. It is small consolation. for it that the Left too shares similar political fortunes.
Drawing closer to Trinamool post a poll pact in West Bengal stands to benefit Congress in national politics. Congress leads the anti-BJP alliance INDIA in which the TMC is a key constituent.
The fact remains that Congress took on both BJP and TMC in 2024 Lok Sabha polls, the INDIA alliance notwithstanding. The decision to take on TMC led to Congress ending up with only one seat, a factor which would be pondered upon by Congress leadership.
Indecision and delay boiling down to kowtowing to TMC have .marked state Congress ‘s actions ever since Suvankar Sarkar replaced Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury as West Bengal Congress chief.
It was a change of scene after the state unit chief called the shots during Chowdhury headed the state unit. Now it is Sarkar who goes by central party leadership’s instructions while making perfunctory protest against TMC government.
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It was the other way around during Chowdhury’s period of office. With Chowdhury having been the leader of the Congress Parliamentary Party, close to Rahul and Sonia Gandhi and having a base of his own in and around Behrampore was not a leader to be trifled with.
His political stature turned out to be a weighing factor when he sealed a poll pact with the Left. Sarkar, on the other hand, is yet to win an election and is considered to be a political minnow in his own party.
Even a cursory look at the political situation it becomes plain TMC and Congress are getting closer. A message to fall in line is conveyed to the state unit after MPs of both parties together with those of the INDIA bloc closed ranks against Special Intentensive Revision (SIR) at New Delhi recently and Rahul Gandhi was seen tending to a manhandled Mahua Moitra and others from TMC.
Both TMC and Congress stands to gain at the national level if Sarkar defers to the wishes of the central leadership of the party to ally with Trinamool. . But the leadership eill.hsve toive with Congress influence waning further in West Bengal even if it gets a token representation in the state Assembly courtesy TMC.
Playing second fiddle is the last thing the Congress will do if it is in electoral pact with the CPI(M)-led Left, another member of the INDIA bloc. But the poll results of this alliance nosediving since 2021 Assembly polls and 2024 Lok Sabha elections has made national leadership of Congress chary of it.
The writing on the wall for West Bengal Congress states in a poll pact will TMC, the former will have no bargaining power in sharing seats as happened in 2011 elections. Whatever is left of committed Congress votes will go the Left or BJP, a senior leader said on condition of anonymity.
Putting up a brave face, state Congress chief Sarkar said that the Congress is gearing up to contest in all the 294 constituencies from West Bengal.He knows that this is not even pep talk as he himself admitted earlier that the final decision rests with the national leadership.
Meanwhile, Sarkar has criticised the TMC for poll “irregularities”. But his words lack the acerbity of his predecessor, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury.
There is no denying the fact Congress-Trinamool relations have improved after Sarkar assumed office. Trinamool supremo, Mamata Banerjee may concede some seats to Congress in the coming elections, a factor which Congress national leadership is banking on.
Sticking to his earlier stand, former state chief Chowdhury said that he is in favour of a poll pact with the Left whose secular credentials are unquestionable. The Left Front partners are scheduled to meet on August 19 to decide on the allotment of seats among them in districts.
As things stand now, the state Congress is likely to walk down the road it has not travelled since 2016 Assembly elections. After all, it seems to be the way to regain political relevance in the state in which it has been ousted from corridors of power for more than four decades.
