Seat-sharing row brews between Left Front and ISF ahead of 2026 Bengal polls

In the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, the ISF contested 14 seats independently, often against Forward Bloc nominees.

Seat-sharing talks between the Communist Party of India (Marxist)-led Left Front and the Indian Secular Front (ISF) have intensified ahead of the 2026 West Bengal Assembly elections after the Congress decided to go solo.

The Left has reopened negotiations with the ISF, founded in 2021 by Furfura Sharif cleric Abbas Siddiqui. However, seat-sharing, especially in constituencies traditionally contested by the All India Forward Bloc, remains a sticking point.

Sources cited in a report by The Indian Express said a senior CPI(M) leader recently met ISF MLA Naushad Siddiqui and others to resolve differences. State Secretary Md Salim was present, it has been learnt from the report.

The CPI(M) plans to contest 180-200 of the 294 seats. Allies, the Revolutionary Socialist Party and the Communist Party of India, along with the Forward Bloc, are eyeing 15-20 seats each, leaving around 30-35 for the ISF.

A senior CPI(M) leader said the party is ready to offer 30 seats. "Some seats are traditionally fought by the Forward Bloc, which is unwilling to give them up. We expect a resolution within a week," the leader has been cited in the report.

The Forward Bloc has, meanwhile, issued a warning. "If the CPI(M) wants, it can give ISF seats from its own share. If our seats are handed over, we will leave the Left Front," a senior leader told The Indian Express.

The ISF is demanding about 45 seats. "We are hopeful the leadership will recognise our organisational growth," as per a party functionary.

The friction is sharp in Howrah and North 24 Parganas, where the Forward Bloc has influence but the ISF has expanded recently.

In 2021, the Left, Congress and ISF allied against Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s All India Trinamool Congress. The alliance faltered; the ISF alone won a seat, Bhangar, with Naushad Siddiqui defeating the TMC candidate by nearly 27,000 votes.

The alliance collapsed soon after. In the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, the ISF contested 14 seats independently, often against Forward Bloc nominees.

Left leaders say Congress staying out offers flexibility.

The ISF, which seeks “social justice for Muslims and Dalits,” has grown since 2021. In the 2023 panchayat polls, it won 336 seats, 325 gram panchayats, 10 panchayat samiti and one zila parishad, despite the Trinamool sweeping the state.