New Delhi: After a disastrous performance in the recent Bihar polls, the Congress has virtually become “untouchable” for major players in the INDIA bloc. While the TMC is not willing to “touch the Congress with a barge pole”, the Left feels “the Congress will drag them down as it sinks”.
The “total isolation” the Congress faces in Bengal is also rooted in the fact that in the 2021 Assembly polls, the party contested 92 seats and drew a blank. The party finished third or fourth in nearly every constituency and slipped to a 3 per cent vote share, its weakest performance in Bengal’s electoral history.
While the top BJP leaders have already started moving into poll-bound Bengal, where the elections are due in March-April in 2026, the Congress so far has no strategy. Local leaders of the Congress claim that there is no direction by the AICC as to how to move forward, though many state leaders have sent word to the high command.
According to sources, senior Congress leader and Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi is scheduled to visit Kolkata and steer the party ahead of the Assembly elections early next year.
Insiders say that the Congress is finding it difficult to find allies in West Bengal. Chief minister Mamata Banerjee, who is also the TMC chief, has openly expressed dissatisfaction with the functioning of the INDIA bloc. So much so that in the ongoing Parliament session the TMC is not attending the Opposition meetings in the room of Rajya Sabha Leader of the Opposition and Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge.
The Left is also finding it difficult to go along with the Congress. In the last two Assembly elections of 2016 and 2021, the Congress and the Left were in alliance. And in both the Assembly elections their seat tally went down. This alliance lost badly and the BJP benefitted.
This time round the left parties are noncommittal in their alliance with the Congress. Insiders claim that the Congress has already reached out to the Left parties at an initial level.
The problem for the Congress has also increased because after the massive mandate in Bihar, the BJP has already made special plans to ensure its victory in West Bengal. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has already had a meeting of the party MPs from the state. He has asked them to ensure that the party wins the upcoming Assembly elections.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: deccanchronicle.com
