'CPI(M) has no issues working with TMC at national level to oust BJP'

KOLKATA: At a time when Trinamool Congress (TMC) chairperson Mamata Banerjee is likely to meet Opposition party leaders in New Delhi, Left Front chairman Biman Bose on Monday said the party had no problems in working with the Trinamool Congress to oust BJP from the

Centre.

Taking part in a party function, Bose said: "We have no problem in working with any party from Kashmir to Kanyakumari, Kutch to Kohima to oust BJP from the Centre."

The statement of Bose is significant at a time when Banerjee is in New Delhi. The TMC supremo will be meeting the leaders of the Opposition parties to set up a front against the BJP.

Earlier, she had stated that to oust BJP, the Opposition parties should come under one umbrella shedding their self interests.

Political experts said some days ago CPI(M) state secretary Suryakanta Mishra had said the "Bijemul" slogan raised by the party before the state Assembly polls had become counterproductive.

They said CPI(M)'s alliance with Congress to oppose Trinamool in the 2016 and 2021 Assembly election had become disastrous. For the first time in the history of Independent India since the first election was held in 1952, there are no Congress and Left Front MLAs in the state Assembly.

There are no CPI(M) MPs in Lok Sabha from the state. The lone CPI(M) MP from the state in Rajya Sabha is Bikas Bhattacharya.

Many CPI(M) leaders have joined the BJP and have become MLAs. Opposing Trinamool has cost the CPI(M) dearly as there has been a massive erosion in the vote bank.

"In 2019 Lok Sabha election, CPI(M) voters had voted for BJP as they believed that if the number of Trinamool MPs could be brought down below 10, then in 2021 Assembly election the Left Front would come to power. However, that did not happen. Many CPI(M) supporters voted for Trinamool Congress against the BJP, helping the TMC to increase its seat share to 215 from 213 in 2016," political analysts opined.

Under such a situation, the CPI(M)'s only alternative is to support the anti-BJP front for its own survival, experts added.