Amid Bengal seat tussle, Left, Congress, ISF struggle to pick a face against Abhishek Banerjee

The seat-sharing troubles besetting the third front in the state now also involves the high-profile Diamond Harbour seat, where the incumbent TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee, Mamata’s nephew and political successor, is again contesting.

The Diamond Harbour constituency largely spreads over South Parganas district adjoining Kolkata.

Last year, ISF chief Naushad Siddiqui, the MLA from Bhangar in South 24 Parganas, announced that he was ready to take on Abhishek in the Lok Sabha polls if his party would agree. Both the CPI(M) and the Congress welcomed Naushad’s decision, with the former maintaining that it would extend full support to Naushad if he enters the fray in Diamond Harbour.

However, since the announcement of the Lok Sabha elections last month, Naushad has been silent about his proposal to fight Abhishek, with the CPI(M) waiting for his final decision.
The ISF has however declared its candidates for eight seats, even though the Left is not ready to allot the party more than four seats. The CPI(M) has already fielded its candidates from two of these seats – Murshidabad and Serampore.

A senior CPI(M) leader said, “Our state secretary Md Salim has said that if Naushad contests from Diamond Harbour, we will give full support to ISF. But ISF has to withdraw its candidate from Serampore and Murshidabad from where Dipshita Dhar and Md Salim are contesting respectively. But, ISF is not ready to withdraw from there. And they are also not ready to field a candidate in Diamond Harbour. In this situation, we may be forced to snap our ties with ISF.”

The CPI(M) leader also said, “We will wait for ISF for another couple of days. After that, we will announce our candidate in Diamond Harbour.”

CPI(M) sources said the party leadership has decided that if the ISF does not name its candidate in Diamond Harbour, the party would then field its student leader Pratikur Rahman from the seat.

The BJP has also yet to take a decision about its nominee from Diamond Harbour, even though the names of the party’s local leaders such as Priyanka Tibrewal and Abhijit Das and actor Rudranil Ghosh are doing the rounds among its probables. A BJP leader said, “We are also waiting for what Naushad Siddiqui will finally decide. After that, we will announce our candidate.”
On his part, Naushad said, “We have named eight candidates. If the two big parties (CPM and Congress) think of sidelining us, we would field more candidates.”

On the question of contesting the Diamond Harbour seat, he said, “My party has yet to give green signal to me. Without its decision, I cannot contest from Diamond Harbour.”

Taking a swipe at the Opposition, TMC spokesperson Kunal Ghosh told The Indian Express, “Abhishek Banerjee needs someone to defeat. We know anybody can file a nomination against Abhishek Banerjee, but he will win by 4-5 lakh votes. Nobody is ready to fight against Abhishek. Those who are criticising him day and night, they should fight him. Otherwise, we have to put up ‘wanted’ posters for his rival candidate in Diamond Harbour.”

In the 2019 polls, Abhishek had defeated the BJP’s Nilanjan Roy by over 3.20 lakh votes in Diamond Habour. The CPM and the Congress, which were then contesting separately, finished in distant third and fourth position, respectively, in the seat.

ISF sources indicated that if the third front does not seal the seat-sharing pact, the party may also nominate candidates from the Jadavpur and Malda Dakshin seats, from where the CPI(M) and the Congress have already announced their nominees.

Meanwhile, the Left and the Congress have failed to resolve their differences over two seats, Coochbehar and Purulia, which have been claimed by the Forward Bloc, a Left Front constituent.

The Congress has already declared its candidate against the Forward Bloc’s candidate in Coochbehar scheduled for polls in the first phase on April 19.

The CPI(M) had agreed to allot the Purulia seat to the Congress, even though it had been a traditional Forward Bloc seat. The Congress has also fielded its candidate from Purulia, with the Forward Bloc now informing the Left Front that it would also do the same.

In light of its talks with the Left so far, out of the state’s 42 seats, the Congress has announced 10 candidates, proposing to name three more nominees. A senior Congress leader said, “We are negotiating with the Left Front. We would fight three more seats out of these four – Barrackpore, Ghatal, Tamluk and Burdwan-Durgapur. It would be finalised in two-three days.”

The Left Front has already announced its candidates in 23 seats. It is likely to declare its nominees for about eight more seats in the coming few days.