As Congress high command reaches out to TMC, what it means for party’s ties with Left in Bengal

The Congress’s West Bengal unit seems to be in a dilemma. With the All India Congress Committee (AICC) leadership cosying up to the Trinamool Congress (TMC) in a bid to unite the Opposition against the BJP in Parliament and outside, state Congress leaders have been left with little elbow room after having allied with the CPI(M)-led Left Front for several years. The CPI(M), in particular, has maintained its staunch opposition to the TMC.

On Thursday, senior Congress leader and ex-Union minister P Chidambaram came to Kolkata to meet TMC supremo and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee at the state secretariat, Nabanna. TMC sources said the two leaders discussed how the Congress and the TMC— two of the largest Opposition parties — can coordinate their moves and strategies to take on the ruling BJP-led NDA government during the upcoming Parliament session. The first session of the 18th Lok Sabha is set to get underway on June 24.

Apart from the Congress, the TMC and the CPI(M) are major constituents of the Opposition INDIA alliance at the national level.

On Friday, at a closed-door meeting the extended state committee of the Bengal Congress reviewed the party’s debacle in the state in the recent Lok Sabha polls, in which it fought against both the TMC and the BJP, while striking an alliance with the Left Front. While the Congress managed to increase its vote share marginally, as compared to the 2021 Assembly elections and the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the number of its seats dipped to one from two in 2019.

A majority of the leaders who were present at the meeting said that the party should go alone in the polls in the state, fighting not only the BJP but also the TMC, sources said. They even said that while the alliance with the Left