Political pundits are raising doubts on the continuation of this show of political unity which comes to the fore only during elections. Political compulsion of survival threatened by the ruling Trinamool Congress was certainly there in banding together of the duo but personal equations between the state Congress president Adhir Chowdhury and the CPI(M) state secretary Md. Salim appear to be the actual adhesive which bound together this unlikely alliance.

Way back in 2016, the Congress and CPI(M) realised after long self of introspection that they cannot take on the ruling Trinamool Congress single handed. Even if there were major shortcomings of the ruling dispensation in the state, the Congress and the Left chose to agitate against them singly rather than from a united forum lest one of them hogs the entire limelight. L

As the seat sharing program was about to be inked in 2016, a din of resentment arose from the rank and file of both state units. Refreshing collective memory, a senior Congress leader said many party activists sought grounding of the electoral understanding recalling incidents of Congress workers being at the receiving end of alleged CPI(M) violence on many occasions.

The CPI(M) leadership too faced a similar dilemma. But the clouds cleared owing to the initiative of former chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee coupled with the personal equations between some senior CPI(M) leaders and PCC chief Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury.

Congress emerged as the biggest Opposition unit after the 2016 assembly polls with the Left playing second fiddle. But leader of the Opposition, Abdul Mannan and leader of Left Front Legislative Party, Sujan Chakraborty acted in unison catching Trinamool ministers on the wrong foot during the Assembly sessions on successive occasions.

Truth to tell, the coordination within the Assembly was not much in evidence outside. There were several opportunities after 2016 and 2021 Assembly elections for both Congress and the Left to jointly take on the Trinamool government.

Yet they refrained from launching joint movements though issues were plenty. There were alleged involvements of some Trinamool leaders in connection to several Ponzi schemes like Sharadha and Rose Valley in 2016.

Narada sting operation followed. In it, several Trinamool leaders and a IPS officer were see on camera to accept wads of currency notes in lieu of favours. But instead of organising joint movements, Congress and CPI(M) leaders preferred to go their own way. Joint movements were few and far between.

The fragmented agitation diluted the impact on the Trinamool Congress government. Consequently, the Congress and the Left Front were reduced to marginal forces in terms of legislative presence.

The 2021 Assembly elections witnessed not a single constituency in the bag of either Left or Congress. Indian Secular Front legislator from Bhangar Naushad Siddiqi was the sole legislator from the Congress-Left-ISF coalition while BJP emerged as the principal Opposition party.

Come 2024 Lok Sabha elections and PCC chief Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury and CPI(M) state secretary Salim are contesting from the same district- Murshidabad. Given the TMC successes in previous elections, both are hoping that their bonhomie percolates down to the rank and file of their respective political outfits.

Political observers would not be far off the mark to say that BJP took advantage of the situation in both 2019 Lok Sabha and 2021 Assembly elections and stepped into the void and emerged as the principal Opposition outfit in the state, even in the Muslim dominated Murshidabad district.. Starting almost from scratch, it started organising structured agitation beginning from the panchayat level and culminating in state Capital of Kolkata.

A series of scams including cash for teaching jobs, ration irregularities, coal and cattle smuggling charges. It led to the arrests of state education minister Partha Chatterjee, state forest minister Jyotipriya Mallick, TMC's Birbhum district chief Anubrata Mondal and several senior officials of School Service Commission. The corruption by the TMC leaders is a big issue. The citizens of the state who are opposed to the TMC rule are looking for a combined fight by the Left Front and the Congress to take on the TMC in the Lok Sabha polls.

Finally after lot of hesitation on the part of the Congress, the alliance between the Congress and the CPI(M) has been formed in Bengal to fight both the TMC and the BJP. The base level Congress workers have started working for the CPI(M) candidates. The CPI(M) secretary Md. Salim is getting support from the Congress workers. Similarly the state Congress president Adhir Chowdhury is getting CPI(M) cadres in his campaign. Salim’s polling is scheduled for May 7 and Adhir’s on May 13. After May 7 polling is over, the local Congress and CPI(M) cadres are supposed to work for Chowdhury whose polling is due on May 13.

So far so good for the Congress-Left combine in these two constituencies. But the results depend on the actual polling day when the supporters of the two parties who had enmity in the past, will be casting their votes. Will it be possible for the Congress and the CPI(M) supporters to transfer their votes en bloc to the other. That is the crucial question as the two top leaders of the two parties fight the TMC and the BJP candidates in their respective constituencies. (IPA Service)