Congress, Left Front finalise poll deal in 193 seats in West Bengal

Several rounds of talks between the Left Front and the Congress in West Bengal, reached a conclusive end today with the initial seat-sharing formula of 101-92 being finalised by the leadership of the two opposition parties for the upcoming state Assembly polls.

Kolkata (West Bengal):The Congress and Left Front on Thursday finalised the poll deal on sharing of 193 seats of the total 294 in the West Bengal Assembly, state Congress president Adhir Chowdhury said on Thursday.

The decision on the remaining 101 seats will be taken later, he told reporters here after a joint meeting of the two sides.

The meeting was held at Bidhan Bhavan, the state Congress headquarters in the city. LF chairman Biman Bose and other senior leaders of both the parties were present at the meeting.

Of the 193 seats, the LF will contest in 101 and Congress in 92 seats. The 193 seats include the 77 seats they had won in the last Assembly poll in 2016.

"Both Congress and Left Front will put up a strong fight against the ruling Trinamool Congress and BJP who are promoting narrow politics in the state. We will forge the electoral alliance in a peaceful manner," Chowdhury said.

Read:Congress and Left together in Bengal polls: Biman Bose

Congress had won 44 seats and the Left 33 in the 2016 state election.

As per the decision taken today, Congress will contest in another 48 seats and the LF in 68 seats in the coming state poll, Chowdhury added.