FB, CPI oppose CPI(M)’s move to form alliance with Cong

This is important at a time when the Congress high command will meet WBPCC leaders in Delhi on February 1 to discuss about the alliance with the Left Front. State CPI(M) leaders have spoken in  favour of the alliance and CPI(M) MP Mohmmad Salim went one step forward and urged the Congress to give a clear stand on the alliance on Monday. 

Preferring anonymity, a veteran CPI leader felt that the alliance would be disastrous for the Left movement in West Bengal. “In municipality and panchayat elections, unofficial political alliance is made with right forces, but an official electoral alliance would be disastrous.”

He maintained that the alliance would ultimately benefit the Trinamool Congress as the party would go to the people saying that it was an opportunistic alliance and no development of the state was possible under them. 

He said that after the Left supported the Manmohon Singh government, the then Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee used to say “they will sit when we ask them to sit and will stand up when we ask them to do so.” “How can the Congress forget the way Prakash Karat, the then general secretary of the CPI(M), had withdrawn support to the Centre. He said the CPI would oppose the move. None of the leaders of the allies were contacted before raising this demand.

A veteran Forward Bloc leader said an alliance with the Congress was ‘absurd’. He said after two United Front governments failed in 1967 and 1969, before the formation of the Left Front, it was decided that the Congress was the main enemy.    

He said, “We have taken out rallies against Indira Gandhi after she declared emergency and later against Rajiv Gandhi for his alleged involved in the purchase of Bofors guns. How can we forget those days when Congress workers had beaten up many of our supporters.”

He said the rank and file of the Forward Bloc was against the alliance and the party would communicate this to the CPI(M).

Asked whether the Siliguri model of Ashok Bhattacharya would be followed in the Assembly polls, he said, “It was not an open alliance.” He said the party would take a decision after February 1.