Congress to Contest All Seats Independently in West Bengal Elections

Kolkata, February 5: The Congress party has officially announced that it will contest all 294 assembly seats independently in the upcoming West Bengal assembly elections. The party stated that it will not engage in any seat-sharing agreements with the CPI(M)-led Left Front or the Trinamool Congress. This decision was made during a meeting of the Congress Working Committee in New Delhi on Thursday.

Representatives from West Bengal included current state Congress president Suvankar Sarkar, former state Congress president and five-time former Lok Sabha member Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, and the only Congress Lok Sabha member from West Bengal, Isha Khan Chowdhury.

Following a meeting at the residence of Congress National President Mallikarjun Kharge, Congress General Secretary and West Bengal in-charge Ghulam Ahmed Mir announced that the AICC will fight the upcoming assembly elections without forming alliances with any other political party in the state.

In addition to Kharge and Mir, other national Congress leaders present included Lok Sabha Opposition Leader Rahul Gandhi and K.C. Venugopal.

Mir emphasized that previous experiences with alliances or seat-sharing arrangements in West Bengal have significantly weakened the party’s grassroots workers. After discussions with state Congress leaders, it was decided that the party would contest all 294 assembly seats independently. Preparations for the elections will begin accordingly.

Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury stated that the decision to contest alone was made by the party’s high command. He confirmed that, as per the high command’s directive, the party will fight the elections independently this time.

Political analysts believe that establishing a smooth seat-sharing arrangement for the 2026 West Bengal assembly elections seemed nearly impossible from the outset.

Since 2016, the main architects of the seat-sharing arrangement between the Left Front and Congress were the late CPI(M) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury and the former West Bengal Congress president, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury.

Following Yechury’s passing, there has not been a single national leader within the CPI(M) central leadership who has been vocal in persuading the party’s central leadership to negotiate an arrangement with Congress.