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Bengal
Cong splits, 7 MLAs join NCP
Sabyasachi
Bandopadhyay
Kolkata, April
16: JUST
25 days before the Assembly polls, the Congress in West Bengal split
for the second time in as many months, with seven MLAs who were denied
tickets following the party’s alliance with the Trinamool Congress,
formally joining the Nationalist Congress Party today.
This was announced at a
press conference attended by the MLAs and NCP General Secretary
Tariq Anwar. The seven along with two other MLAs, had formed the
Congress Bachao Committee on April 9 and decided to field candidates
at all Congress seats that the Trinamool had insisted on putting
up candidates.
With the NCP
emerging as yet another force, the state this time will witness
a multi-pronged fight this time with as many as six major alliances
battling it out in the hustings. The six major groups are: The ruling
nine-party Left Front, Trinamool Congress-Congress-Jharkhand Mukti
Morcha Front, the three-party NDA front led by the BJP, the Front
led by the PDS and the Front led by the Naxalites.
‘‘Now
our leader is Sharad Pawar and not Sonia who’s hell-bent on
breaking the party,’’ Daulat Ali, an MLA, said. ‘‘We
will field candidates from 60 seats,’’ Anwar said. ‘‘We
will have a meeting tomorrow in which we will decide on the first
lot of names,’’ he said. He also said they would field
candidates against Congress candidates.
The dissident
MLAS, however, said they would not have any truck with the BJP.
This despite the BJP claiming that the dissident MLAs are in touch
with them. They also said they had not resigned from the party’s
primary membership. ‘‘Let the high command decide,’’
Ali said.
‘‘In
fact, the Congress Bachao Committee will still be there. We are
joining the NCP because we want their symbol and money,’’
Ali said. The NCP, for whom the desertion came as a shot in the
arm, said the party would emerge as the real Congress. Meanwhile,
the BJP released its list of candidates for 239 seats. ‘‘Allies
including the Samata and the JD(U) will fight in 36 seats,’’
Muzaffar Khan, BJP state vice-president said here. Seventeen seats
are yet to be decided.
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