Adhir Chowdhury new chief of Bengal Congress, open to alliance with the Left for 2021 Assembly polls

Ahead of the 2021 Assembly elections in West Bengal, the Congress appointed Adhir Chowdhury as the new chief of the state Congress.

After taking over as the Congress chief, Chowdhury said that the Congress supporters who had left the party were welcome to join back. He also expressed his willingness for an alliance (jot) with the Left parties for the coming Assembly polls, scheduled in 2021. Chowdhury said that the Congress has always been willing for jot with the Left parties, but the latter have not always wanted it. “Even in the coming days, we are willing,” Chowdhury said. He explained that the Congress and the Left parties were both being attacked by the Trinamool Congress in Bengal and as such there were plenty of reasons why the two would prefer to be together and fight together.

However, answering questions on Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee’s close association, especially in the recent past, Adhir Chowdhury said that nationally both were fighting the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and as such the Trinamool should be in touch with the Congress. However, asked whether under that backdrop a tie-up between the Congress and the Trinamool Congress is possible in the state in the coming Assembly polls, Chowdhury refused to answer, saying it was “a hypothetical question”.