Congress fights for political existence in Bengal : Pradipta Tapadar

However, according to state Congress leaders, the party high command's decision to forge alliance with the TMC on the latter's terms to oust the Left Front in the 2009 Lok Sabha and 2011 Assembly polls that dealt a massive blow to the party.

“We sacrificed much of our interest by giving the TMC our best during the alliance,” state Congress leader Nirbed Roy said.

Since October, 2012, the Congress lost six of its MLAs to the TMC, excluding two independent MLAs who had won with Congress support, engineered mainly by strategist Mukul Roy.  

Roy has gone on record saying, “The Congress party will soon turn into a signboard and visiting cards in Bengal”.  

The Congress's inability to cut into TMC's vote share in triangular fights became glaringly manifest during the 2013 Panchayat poll and by-elections when the Trinamool Congress received more than 41 per cent votes compared to 43 per cent the combine of the two parties had received in the 2011 Assembly election.