Minutes before a deadline set by Mamata Banerjee expired, the Congress capitulated and accepted her terms for a political partnership for the West Bengal elections.
The Congress had originally asked for 90 seats, and Ms Banerjee, who is the chief of the Trinamool Congress, offered 64. Her take-it-or-leave-it deal today saw her willing to offer one additional seat. And the Congress accepted. So while it will contest 65 seats, Ms Banerjee's candidates will take the remaining 229 seats for the West Bengal Assembly. "To bring back democracy in Bengal, we are giving one more seat to Congress," she said today, as she announced her party's manifesto.
The Congress denied that it had sold out, a complaint voiced by unhappy state leaders from West Bengal who had travelled to Delhi to meet Sonia Gandhi, and urge her to push for 90 constituencies. "There is no question of compromise or surrender when two parties agree for a negotiated settlement. All should honour it," said Congress spokesperson Shakeel Ahmed in Delhi.
Ms Banerjee had surprised the Congress on Friday by unilaterally announcing her party's decision to contest 228 seats, even though her ally had asked for some more time to work on its shortlist of candidates and the constituencies it wanted.
Finally, Ms Banerjee told the party to indicate by 4 pm today whether it would team up with her. Through the day, a breakthrough seemed distant; a long afternoon meeting between Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Sonia Gandhi reportedly ended the dithering.
The devil, however, lies in the detail, mainly in who gets what constituency. The additional seat that Ms Banerjee has sanctioned for the Congress is Canning East and not one of the three it really wanted: Kolkata Port, Metiabruz or Kharagpur Sadar.
Both sides are aware though that they need to stick together to ensure the vote against the Left is not divided between them. In 2009, when the Left had suffered a crushing defeat in the Lok Sabha polls, Trinamool and Congress had fought as allies. The hope is for some sort of action replay.
