Congress blinks, accepts 1 more than what offered by TC

New Delhi/Kolkata, Mar 21 (PTI) Indian National
Congress on Monday blinked in the war of nerves as Trinamool
Congress conceded only 65 seats against the demand of 90 while
clinching a seat-sharing deal under which the regional ally
will contest 229 seats in West Bengal Assembly elections.
Even after the intervention of Congress President
Sonia Gandhi, Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee gave
just one more seat to Congress. It had earlier agreed to give
64 seats to it at the most.
Congress said it would announce its candidates later.
The script in West Bengal appears to have been written
by Mamata, widely perceived to be the next Chief Minister of
the state, unlike in Tamil Nadu where Congress President Sonia
Gandhi had called the shots to extract a better deal from a
reluctant DMK chief M Karunanidhi.
The deal was announced within hours of a meeting
between Congress President Sonia Gandhi and Finance Minister
Pranab Mukherjee and the latter's telephonic talk with
Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee.
Mamata's virtual stance of "take-it-or-leave it"
forced Congress to pick up the bargain offered by her and on
her own terms as she had unilaterally announced her candidates
for 228 of the total 294 seats last week, taking Congress by
surprise.
She had set a deadline till 1600 hours today for
Congress to accept the 64 seats allotted to it or TC would
announce candidates for all the 294 seats.
Congress' announcement of the seat-sharing accord came
just a few minutes before the deadline though party leaders
refused to accept that it was done under any pressure.
Announcing their seat-sharing agreement, Congress
Working Committee member in-charge for West Bengal affairs
Shakeel Ahmed said "every party wants to contest as many seats
as possible but when they sit at the negotiating table, they
arrive at a mutually-agreed number."
Ahmed as also West Bengal PCC chief Manas Bhuniya
sidestepped questions on whether they were happy and satisfied
over the deal.
"There is no question of compromise or surrender. When
the two parties have agreed for a negotiated settlement, all
party workers and leaders should honour it," Ahmed said.
In Kolkata, Mamata Banerjee on Monday said "we all
want to work together to bring back democracy by ending Left
Front misrule in the coming elections."
The refrain of both Ahmed and Bhuniya was that the
biggest thing was that the agreement has been reached as
"people of West Bengal wanted the ouster of Left Front
government and the agreement has given more strength to that
hope".

The seat-sharing was finalized on the return of
the Congress President from the UK after a week-long trip.
Gandhi was understood to have been strongly in favour of the
alliance with TC.
Sources in Congress said that apart from the number of
seats, Congress was also objecting to Banerjee's refusal to
part with some seats where Congress has sitting MLAS on the
pretext that the nature of those seats changed after
delimitation.
There has been no assurance for a reconsideration by
Banerjee on this count. Moreover, the one additional seat
Congress has been offered is said to be a strong-hold of
CPI-M and where Congress stands very little chance to win.
Shakeel Ahmed said "we will soon announce the names of
constituencies and their candidates".
Youth Congress of West Bengal had already submitted a
demand list of 30 seats to AICC general secretary Rahul
Gandhi who was keen that that workers of the party's youth
wing should have greater participation in electoral politics.
State Youth Congress President and young party MP
Mausam Noor met Ahmed in this regard after finalisation of the
seat- sharing.
Sources in Youth Congress said they were expecting
more seats and they are now unlikely to get 30 seats with
Congress getting only 65 seats.
Senior Congress MP from West Bengal Adhir Ranjan
Chaudhury had on Sunday said Trinamool's unilateral
announcement to the seats was an insult to Congress chief
Sonia Gandhi. He had also alleged that Mamata Banerjee's party
wanted to marginalise Congress in West Bengal.
Another party MP Deepa Dasmunshi had also expressed
reservations against "succumbing to the pressure of Trinamool
Congress."
On March 13 when first formal meeting of Congress and
Trinamool Congress had begun, Union Ministers Sultan Ahmed and
Mukul Roy, representing TC, had offered 58 seats Congress
which had placed a demand for 90 seats.
Prior to it, Bhunia had submitted a list 98 assembly
seats to the Congress leadership while Trinamool Congress
leaders in West Bengal had said Congress would not be given
more than 45 seats.
Congress District presidents and MPs from the state, in
their meeting with Pranab Mukherjee last week, had said the
party should go it alone in the state if one third of total
seats was not offered to it.