In what would be the first major state election in India this year, discussions on seat sharing between Left & the Congress continue with various speculations making rounds of the political circles in West Bengal.

Indian National Congress will contest around 93 seats in the West Bengal Assembly election in alliance with the Left and Indian Secular Front, sources said, as seat-sharing talks among the alliance partners continued on Thursday.

The Congress last time had contested 92 seats and won 44 in which about 20 MLAs crossed to the ruling TMC. The Congress is the second-largest party in the outgoing Assembly holding the Leader of Opposition’s post.

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The Congress and Left had missed the earlier seat-sharing deadline which was January 31. The party is now pressing its state unit to finalize the seat-sharing agreement so that the preparations for the election could be started immediately.

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The main focus of the party will be on quality of seats and not quantity, unlike in Bihar where the party contested 70 seats but won only 19.

The Congress has set up a committee to chalk out a seat-sharing agreement with the Left parties, which includes Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, Abdul Mannan, Pradeep Bhattacharya, and Nepal Mahato.

The seat-sharing deal between the Left-Congress alliance and the Indian Secular Front (ISF) appeared to be in deep water as Bengal’s new political entrant, launched by Islamic cleric Abbas Siddiqui, demanded 45 seats and the alliance agreed to leave 25.

Also see: Trilateral fight in West Bengal election 2021

A Left Front leader described the ISF’s demand as “unrealistic”, and said that dialogues are on to settle the deal as they are trying to stitch an alliance to defeat the ruling Trinamool Congress and the BJP.

The Congress, however, made it clear that it would not accommodate the AIMIM in the alliance. The AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi, during his Bengal visit and meeting with Abbas last month, had announced that his party would contest in the upcoming Assembly elections under the leadership of the influential cleric of the Furfura Sharif.

Also See: West Bengal 2021: Battleground for BJP and TMC

Left Front chairman Biman Bose had earlier said that the seat adjustment deal with the Congress would be finalized smoothly. With Abbas Siddiqui’s demand of 45 seats, the final seat adjustment cannot be announced even though only two months are left for the parties to go for electioneering, said a CPI(M) leader.

Sources in the CPI(M) said that the party is more amenable to take ISF on board as it needs to access to Muslim votes in rural Bengal considered as TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee’s strong vote-bank.

The Congress-Left alliance want to make the Assembly polls a triangular contest not only between TMC and BJP but also with the alliance in the play.

The TMC is eyeing a third term in West Bengal; however many leaders including close aides of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee have switched sides to the BJP, even as the saffron party is upbeat about the polls and central leaders of the party are visiting the state frequently.