Lok Sabha Elections 2019: CPM Central Committee Approves Pre-Poll Agreement With Congress in 6 West Bengal Seats
'Central Committee has decided that there are today 6 sitting seats which are neither BJP nor Trinamool in Lok Sabha, 4 of Congress and 2 of CPI(M). We have decided that in these 6 seats there should not be a mutual contest,' Yechury said.
Kolkata, March 4: The Central Committee of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) - the top decision-making body of the party - has approved a pre-poll arrangement with the Congress in six West Bengal Lok Sabha seats where the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Trinamool Congress (TMC) are trailing. The pact is necessitated to ensure non-BJP, non-TMC candidates retain these constituencies, said CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury.
"Central Committee has decided that there are today 6 sitting seats which are neither BJP nor Trinamool in Lok Sabha, 4 of Congress and 2 of CPI(M). We have decided that in these 6 seats there should not be a mutual contest," Yechury said. West Bengal Congress MP Mausam Noor Joins TMC Ahead of 2019 Lok Sabha Elections.
The four seats he referred to are Congress bastions - Malda North, Malda South, Jangipur and Baharampur - from where the grand old party had registered solid-majority victories in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.
The two seats, which were wrested by the CPI(M) in the last general elections, are Raiganj and Murshidabad. From the former, the party's politburo member Mohammed Salim defeated his Congress rival by just over 1,800 votes. In Murshidabad, the CPM's Md Badaruddoza Khan defeated Congress’s Abdul Mannan Hossain by 18,453 votes.
In the remaining constituencies, the two parties will contest separately, making the poll battle in Bengal four-cornered with the BJP and the TMC.
Pre-poll surveys have predicted the Mamata Banerjee-led party to triumph overwhelmingly, winning 31-35 out of the 42 constituencies in the state. The BJP is expected to emerge a distant first runner-up, whereas, a clear rout is predicted for the Congress and the CPI(M).
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Mar 04, 2019 07:27 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).