It is reminiscent of the 2016 West Bengal Assembly Elections when for the first time in a very long time, the Left Front and the Gandhis shared a common stage in Kolkata. It was a strange sight as the azaan was sounded from a nearby mosque in the middle of the public meeting.
The Congressis stood up to pay their respects. The Communists continued sitting and looked straight in stony silence.
The “historic” public rally in question was an occasion to mark a last minute “seat-sharing” agreement between the two parties against the indomitable Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress.
At the time too, the alliance was scoffed at because at the same time the Left and the Congress were at each other’s throats in Kerala.
The numbers game, as they played out after that election, didn’t favour either party as the Trinamool swept the 294-seat Assembly with 211 seats.
The Left lost its status as principal opposition, and on the face of it the Congress seemed to gain from the alliance more than the Left.
In 2016, though, the BJP wasn’t as pervasive a force in the state as it is now. For the 2019 General Elections, therefore, the Left and the Congress face a seat-sharing dilemma.