NEW DELHI: Even as the Congress on Thursday decided that it will contest every one of West Bengal’s 294 assembly seats independently in the 2026 elections—ending months of speculations over aligning with the ruling Trinamool Congress or the Left parties in the state—it is for the first time since 2006 that the grand old party has decided to contest all alone on all seats in the state where it has been out of power for over five decades.
Sources, however, said that the decision was not an easy one as it involved complex discussion with leadership looking at the INDIA bloc alliance at the national level and other alliance partners active in the state.
The decision finally was taken after one-and-half hour meeting with the state leadership of West Bengal attended by president Mallikarjun Kharge, Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi and party general secretary (organisation) KC Venugopal. During the meeting, the party insiders said that the observers and senior leaders of the state like BK Hariprasad and Deepa Dasmunshi joined virtually and the party leadership asked them about their views.
The source said almost all leaders explained how it was necessary to go all alone in the assembly polls as they cited the party’s vote share shrinking in the state in the past few years and not benefitting from alliance in the state. A top source said Rahul Gandhi asked state in-charge Ghulam Ahmed Mir and state unit chief Subhankar Sarkar whether Mamata Banerjee or Trinamool Congress leaders had contacted them for alliance talks. After receiving a negative response, Rahul Gandhi reportedly asked what they were waiting for, giving a clear message that there was no need to wait for alliance or seat-sharing talks with the TMC and that the party should go solo.
The source further claimed that most senior leaders felt the Left parties had used the Congress machinery to support themselves, while their votes never transferred to the Congress. This, the source said, was evident in the 2021 assembly polls when the Congress failed to win a single seat in the state.
However, in reality there votes never get transferred to the party and it was also visible during the 2021 assembly polls as it scored to win a single seat in the state.
During the meeting, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, the source said, batted for an alliance with the Left, pointing out the Congress was unable to deploy Booth Level Agents (BLA) in most booths during the Special Intensive Revision of voter rolls in the eastern state. The source pointed out that in 2021 assembly polls and in 2024 general polls, the vote percentage of the Congress has come down to five per cent. He said, “Right now, there is five per cent vote share, which the party wants to take it to 20 per cent.”
He also clarified that as of now target has been shared with the state leadership that how many seats it will win in the state. But the source indicated that the in at least 65 assembly seats the Congress has good vote bank and it wants to win at least 25 to 30 seats.
When asked if the Congress, which has been leadership crisis in the state will be able to field candidates in all the 294 seats, the source said that we have plenty of senior leaders in the state but we also want to promote the new young leaders, who will be fielded in the upcoming polls. He also mentioned that the Congress has prepared the list of candidates in panel for all the assembly seats three months ago and soon it will be sending these names to the state election committee and then it will be shared with the party top brass.
