Understanding reached with Left in all but seven seats: Bengal Congress chief

The Congress' West Bengal unit president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury on Sunday claimed an understanding has been reached with the Left Front in all but seven constituencies for polls to the 294-seat assembly.

Chowdhury said that as per the understanding, the Left Front would contest 189 seats, and the Congress would be in the fray in 90 constituencies. In eight seats, support would be extended to independents and intellectuals.

"We will have friendly fights in seven constituencies," Chowdhury told the media in Baharampur of Murshidabad district.

He said three seats of Murshidabad (Domkol, Hariharpara and Bharatpur), two in Malda district (Harishchandrapur and Malatipur), one each in South Dinajpur (Tapan) and Kolkata (Belaighata) will see friendly fights between the Congress and the Left Front.

Chowdhury said the Congress would leave the Joypur seat in Purulia district to the Left Front. The party had earlier declared it would name its nominee from the seat.

Chowdhury announced a fresh list of 16 seats where his party would put up candidates.

The Congress is yet to declare its candidates for any of the seats it is contesting in the assembly polls.

Meanwhile, hectic parleys were on between Left Front spearhead Communist Party of India-Marxist and the Congress to narrow down the disputes.

CPI-M state secretariat member Rabin Deb met Congress leaders Somen Mitra, Pradip Bhattacharya and Abdul Mannan to arrive at some compromise formula on the disputed seats.

"I hope now the matters will proceed smoothly. The complications are over," said Bhattacharya, a former state Congress president.

Deb said most of the issues have been resolved. "Only a few more are still pending. It is a seven-phase election. We will hold discussions on the seats in phases."

"The discussions were more or less positive."