Congress leaders trade barbs over alliance with ISF post debacle in West Bengal election

The internal rift within Congress' West Bengal unit came to the fore over the future of the alliance with Furfura Sharif cleric Abbas Siddiqui's Indian Secular Front (ISF). On June 19, WB Congress president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury had expressed apprehension over the tie-up with ISF. He stated, "We never formed an alliance with Indian Secular Front, our alliance is with the CPM, we have not parted ways, the alliance is there". Maintaining that the clean image of the alliance was tarnished by the entry of ISF, he slammed the party for fielding candidates against Congress.

Moreover, Chowdhury made it clear that the alliance will be revisited ahead of the upcoming civic body polls. However, his party colleague and erstwhile Leader of Opposition Abdul Mannan called on Siddiqui and other leaders in Furfura Sharif on Sunday. Disagreeing with Chowdhury's observations, he asserted that the alliance with the ISF continues until Congress president Sonia Gandhi dissolves it. While Congress and the Left front drew a blank in the West Bengal Assembly election, their alliance partner Indian Secular Front won one seat. 

Congress faces debacle in West Bengal

After a hard-fought election campaign, TMC sprung a surprise by decisively winning the West Bengal election by bagging 213 seats whereas BJP could win in only 77 constituencies. The voter turnout for the seats that went to the polls in the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth phases was 84.63 per cent, 86.11 per cent, 84.61 per cent, 79.90 per cent, 82.49 per cent, 79.11 per cent, 76.90 per cent and 78.32 per cent respectively. While the JP Nadda-led party won 74 more seats than the previous election, its vote share of 38.13% could not pose a challenge to TMC which garnered a vote share of 47.94%.

While the ruling party bettered its performance compared to 2016, it suffered a minor blip as WB CM Mamata Banerjee lost from Nandigram to her BJP opponent Suvendu Adhikari. However, barring the Nandigram MLA, most other TMC leaders who had switched over to BJP prior to the election could not win their seats. Even ex-nominated Rajya Sabha MP Swapan Dasgupta, Union Minister Babul Supriyo and BJP Lok Sabha MP Locket Chatterjee had to face defeat. Banerjee was sworn in as the CM for the third time on May 5.