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Kolkata: As the last five phases of voting are approaching, the rift between the separately contesting allies of the opposition alliance ‘India’ – the Congress-Left alliance and the Trinamool Congress – ( TMC) is coming to the fore. Due to local issues like Sandeshkhali and SSC scam, half of the remaining 36 constituencies of West Bengal are witnessing a tough contest. The Trinamool Congress’s decision to contest the elections independently rather than as part of ‘India’ in the state has turned the contest into a triangular one, with the other contenders being the BJP and the Congress-Left alliance.
Both Trinamool and Congress have claimed that they are part of the ‘India’ alliance at the national level and are the authentic representatives of the opposition front in Bengal. Political analysts are of the opinion that without major national discourses like national security after the 2019 Pulwama attack, allegations of corruption, cancellation of School Service Commission (SSC) jobs, incidents in Sandeshkhali and implementation of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), Local concerns are changing election issues.
What did political scientist Maidul Islam say?
Political scientist Maidul Islam of the Center for Studies in Social Sciences commented, “Till a few months ago, it seemed that the elections in Bengal would be a major contest between the Trinamool Congress and the BJP. But with issues like corruption and lack of communication gaining prominence, the Left-Congress alliance is rapidly gaining ground on many seats and the election seems to be turning into a triangular contest in at least 18-20 Lok Sabha constituencies.”
He said apart from two and three seats in Malda and Murshidabad districts, where Trinamool and Congress won two seats each and BJP one in 2019, there are 13 seats in South Bengal where there is a tough fight between Trinamool and the Left-Congress alliance. .
Islam said, “It is not that the Left-Congress will win many seats, but in the areas where the votes they get are above 10 percent, there is a possibility that if they get two percent more votes, they will influence the results.” Can. If they succeed in doing this, it may cause loss to Trinamool or BJP.”
According to Trinamool and Marxist Communist Party (CPI-M) sources, the electoral battle ground extends beyond Malda and Murshidabad, including Dum Dum, Shrirampur, Arambag, Hooghly, Howrah, Barrackpore, Bardhaman-East, Bardhaman-Durgapur, Lok Sabha constituencies like Bankura, Purulia, Tamluk, Kolkata North and Jadavpur are included where a triangular fight can be seen. It is noteworthy that in the 2019 parliamentary elections, eight of these seats were won by Trinamool and the remaining seats were won by BJP.
