Adhir Chowdhury's statement is the first official Congress response to the Left Front's feelers on forging an alliance. (File photo)
In West Bengal, the Congress and the Left parties moved closer to an alliance for the assembly polls with state Congress chief Adhir Chowdhury calling all "democratic and secular forces" to come together.
In a statement released last night from Delhi, Mr Chowdhury said, "On behalf of Pradesh Congress Committee, I am inviting all the democratic and secular forces in Bengal to join together in order to preserve democratic values and establish the rule of law in West Bengal."
The statement is the first official Congress response to the Left Front's feelers on forging an alliance. On Saturday, the party had sent the Left a list of around 100 seats it wants to contest out of 294 in the state.
However, the way the statement is worded sparked speculation because it does not say who the appeal is for. It does not mention the Left or Trinamool. "Has he left room for manoeuvre?" a Left leader wondered.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has called the alliance "opportunistic" and said it will have no impact her party. Trinamool MP Sudip Bandopadhyay claimed when he asked Sonia Gandhi about the alliance, she had said she knew nothing about it. A vote share analysis of the 2014 Lok Sabha poll results shows a Left-Congress combine would lead in 99 of the 236 seats the Trinamool was ahead in.
On the ground, the CPM and Congress have held joint rallies in the districts. But, both face internal pressures against an alliance. The CPM's highest policy making body, the Central Committee, met on February 17 and 18 and did not give the idea its nod. Most want to stick to the policy declared in April, of no truck with the Congress and point to Kerala where CPM and Congress are in a direct fight.
The Congress high command, too, has not publicly responded to Left overtures though state leaders have openly called for an alliance. Rahul Gandhi met state leaders on February 1 but did not commit at anything on the Left.
At the state level, however, the two parties are talking and even plan to field public figures like Justice Ashok Ganguly and Ambikesh Mahapatra , the professor jailed for circulating cartoons on Ms Banerjee.