The Congress will hold seat sharing talks with the Left parties on Tuesday, ahead of the West Bengal Assembly polls.
Sources said it is likely that an agreement will be reached on Tuesday about the number of seats to be contested by each side.
The Congress and Left had missed the earlier seat-sharing deadline, which was January 31. The party is now pressing its state unit to finalize the seat-sharing agreement so that the preparations for the election could be started immediately.
Sources privy to the talks said that the Congress’ main focus will be on the quality of seats and not quantity, unlike in Bihar where the party contested too many seats but won only 19.
The Congress has set up a committee to chalk out a seat-sharing agreement with the Left parties, which includes Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, Abdul Mannan, Pradeep Bhattacharya, and Nepal Mahato.
The committee has identified strong seats and is talking to the Left with all prospects on the table. One of the panel members said, “We are focusing on strong seats only.”
Congress sources said that the results of the Bihar Assembly polls will not have a bearing on West Bengal as every state is different. In the 2016 Bengal Assembly election, the Left had contested more seats but it was the Congress that came second with 44 seats.
