Shila Chhetri (right) of the Congress submits her nomination to subdivisional officer Sharad Dwivedi on Wednesday. Picture by Kundan Yolmo

Siliguri, June 3: The Congress-Trinamul Congress alliance that wiped out the Left Front from large chunks of Bengal in the general elections does not seem to be working for the polls to the Siliguri Mahakuma Parishad scheduled for June 28.

The Darjeeling district leaders of both the parties failed to arrive at a consensus over the sharing of seven seats of the Mahakuma Parishad.

The district president of the Congress, Shankar Malakar, along with six candidates and a rush of supporters, arrived at the subdivisional office at noon today. “We have left the seventh seat for Trinamul as we have an alliance,” Malakar said before leaving the office.

No sooner had he left than Trinamul district president Gautam Deb marched in with his followers and three of his candidates filed their nominations, including for the seat left for them by the Congress.

It was apparent that both parties were indulging in posturing in order to drive hard bargains before the withdrawal of nominations on June 8.

Deb insisted that they were “walking hand in hand” with the Congress and made it clear that alliance options were still open, as the last date for withdrawal was five days away. “We want a cordial settlement, which is expected to be reached at in the next few days.” said Malakar said.

Sources said Trinamul, following its overwhelming performance in the parliamentary polls, had asked for two seats in the Mahakuma Parishad. The Congress, however, refused and left only one seat for them. This disgruntled Trinamul, which fielded two candidates in two seats against the Congress to keep the latter under pressure.

Another element of surprise was Ataur Rehman, a Youth Congress leader, who filed his nomination for a seat as a Congress candidate although Malakar had named Ainul Haque for the seat. Ainul also filed his nominations.

Sujoy Ghatak, the district youth Congress president, said he was away in Calcutta and would take up the matter once he returned. Party sources said the Youth Congress had wanted the seat but the district leaders refused them which prompted them to field Ataur.

The BJP has fielded candidates in six of the seven seats. “We are still in alliance with the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha but have tied up with the Akhil Bharatiya Adivasi Vikas Parishad in one seat,” said Biswapriya Roychoudhury, the state general secretary of BJP.

Sources said the Morcha is backing Independents in two seats. The Parishad, too, was backing an equal number of Independents.