With 6 seats, CPM courtship of ISF causes strain on relations with its old partners

With less than a month to go for the beginning of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, the once mighty CPI(M) finds itself tangled in a web of its own making in West Bengal. It is the largest party in the Left Front, whose other members include the CPI, Forward Bloc, RSP and other smaller parties. The Left Front has a seat-sharing arrangement with the Congress in the state as part of the opposition INDIA coalition. It also has a separate seat-sharing agreement with the Indian Secular Front (ISF) that has continued since the 2021 state Assembly polls, when the ISF was launched.

But while the Congress is not party to this agreement, the other parties in the Left Front are unhappy with the ISF’s demands, to the extent of questioning the CPI(M)’s eagerness to accommodate the new party.

Out of the 42 seats in the state, the Left Front had agreed to leave six for the ISF, apart from 12 for the Congress — leaving 24 seats to carve up between the Front’s own constituent parties. Thereafter, it announced candidates for 17 seats, while the Congress named its candidates on eight, with four more left to be announced.

Trouble began when last week the ISF announced the names of its candidates for eight seats across West Bengal, including Malda-North, Joynagar, Murshidabad, Barasat, Basirhat, Mathurapur, Jhargram and Serampore.

As a result, the Left Front won’t be able to avoid a “friendly fight” in at least five seats in West Bengal. Of these, the CPI(M) is willing to forgo two seats from its Left Front quota, while the Forward Bloc has agreed to do the same on one seat. But within the Left Front, the Forward Bloc and CPI are unhappy with the overall arrangements, as a result of which, the Front is delaying naming any more candidates, until further