Yechury, Karat at loggerheads over Congress alliance

Kolkata: The difference of opinion between CPIM General Secretary Prakash Karat and Sitaram Yechury over the alliance with Congress cropped up at a meeting of the Central Committee held in the

city on Friday, with the former strongly opposing the proposal to have ties with Congress to counter BJP.

The two-day meeting of the Central Committee started on Friday morning.

Addressing the gathering, CPIM leaders belonging to Karat lobby strongly opposed the view that to counter BJP the party should have ties with Congress.

They believe the party should remain equidistance from both the parties as they are imperialist in nature.

Opposing the view, followers of Yechury said to counter BJP the party should have ties with Congress. While Karat lobby had 11 leaders, there were only five leaders for Yechury. The Bengal brigade are supporting Yechury.

It may be recalled that before the 2016 Assembly elections there was Congress - CPIM ties and the result was disastrous. The CPIM got only 28 seats,

lowest in the past 34 years. Subsequently , in all the by elections, the alliance candidates were defeated badly.

The alliance with Congress was inked by the Bengal brigade with Yechury's support before the Assembly elections.

There was a strong resentment from many state committee members which

was overruled.

Finally, Politburo issued a statement which said the alliance was not in consonance with the party's Central Committee's decision.

However, the Bengal brigade refused to accept the logic that the alliance with Congress had brought debacle and

continued to support Congress. However, in the Uluberia Lok Sabha by election, there are no ties with Congress.