Cooch Behar, April 9: The impasse over the CPM and the Forward Bloc sharing seats in the district for the coming panchayat elections continued to haunt the Left Front as the third meeting between the two parties proved to be inconclusive even today.

While the state leaderships of both the parties managed to arrive at an amicable settlement for the “larger good of the Left Front”, the situation in the district is different. Despite downing copious quantities of tea and biscuits, the district leaderships of both the parties drew a blank after four hours.

The CPM was represented by its district secretary Chandi Pal, former minister Dinesh Dakua and Rajya Sabha member Tarini Roy. District secretary of the Bloc Udayan Guha was accompanied by Lok Sabha member Hiten Barman and two MLAs Dipak Sarkar and Akshay Thakur.

“The net result is zero,” said both the Bloc MLAs in unison, emerging from the meeting just before it got over.

Later, Pal said the CPM was still hopeful that a seat-sharing formula acceptable to all would be worked out by Friday.

Party insiders said the disagreement between the two largest front constituents centred on the sharing of the three extra zilla parishad berths. In the last panchayat polls, the Bloc won eight of the 26 seats. Sources said this time, the Bloc wants to contest from those eight seats as well as three new ones.

During the days when Kamal Guha held sway over the Bloc, the CPM was always successful in arriving at a poll understanding despite the veteran leader’s posturing, said political observers.

The February 5 firing on Bloc supporters by the police is also a major factor in the party’s bargaining plank.

“It will be a disgrace if the front unity is not achieved this time, but I am sorry to say that there has been no progress after three days of discussions,” the junior Guha said after the meeting.