Cong to contest 92 seats in Bengal Assembly polls: Adhir Chowdhury

Kolkata: Congress senior leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury on Monday said the Congress will contest 92 seats in the upcoming West Bengal Assembly elections.

Addressing a joint Congress-Left-ISF press conference in Kolkata, Chowdhury said, "As per the discussions held with the Left so far, 92 seats have been finalised for the Congress to contest on in the upcoming West Bengal Assembly elections. The list of candidates for these seats will be announced in two days."

"We had demanded 130 seats in the beginning, the Left front might have accommodated us with more seats but we had to keep the gap for other parties such as Rashtriya Janta Dal (RJD) and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP). Now we don't have to share seats with RJD and NCP but our offer is open for other parties," he added.

Commenting over Congress leader Anand Sharma's remarks on the alliance with Indian Secular Front (ISF), Chowdhury said, "We're in charge of a state and don't take any decision on our own without any permission."

Earlier, Sharma had tweeted that "alliance with ISF and other such parties is against the ideology of the Congress and should have been discussed at the Congress Working Committee (CWC)."

Biman Bose, the Left front chairman, in the same press conference, said, "After today's discussions with the Congress, we felt that there won't be any problem now. We want to proceed further with the alliance."

Ahead of West Bengal Assembly polls, the All India Congress Committee (AICC) on Saturday had appointed party leader RS Bali as AICC Secretary, attached with AICC in-charge of West Bengal.

The Election Commission of India on Friday announced that West Bengal will witness eight-phased Assembly polls on 294 seats beginning from March 27. The counting of votes will take place on May 2.

In 2016, West Bengal Assembly elections, out of the 294 seats, Congress had managed to win 44 seats while the Left Front bagged 33 seats. The ruling TMC secured 211 seats and the BJP had won three seats.