New Delhi, March 22: Ending days of suspense, Congress and Trinamool Congress reached seat-sharing agreement with the former settling for 65 seats, against its original demand of 90, in the 294-member West Bengal Assembly.
The deal was announced within hours of a meeting between Congress President Sonia Gandhi with Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and the latter”s telephonic talk with Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee.
“Congress has entered into a seat-sharing agreeement with Trinamool Congress for West Bengal Assembly polls. We expect that the alliance will give a chance to the people of Bengal to end misrule of the Left,” AICC spokesman Shakeel Ahmed told reporters here.
Under the agreement, Congress will contest from 65 seats while Trinamool will contest from 229 seats, Ahmed said.
Congress initially had demanded 90 seats but Trinamool was not ready to give more than 45. During the several rounds of negotiations, Congress dropped the demand to 70 seats but Trinamool said it could give only 64 seats.
As the stalemate continued, Trinamool went ahead and unilaterally declared candidates for 228, saying it could not wait endlessly. .
—–PTI—-