Trinamool chief to urge party workers to get into poll mode

At a time when Congress and CPI(M) leaders are anxiously waiting for a possible electoral alliance, Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief Mamata Banerjee will urge her party leaders and workers to get into the poll mode.  

Banerjee will chair the extended meeting of the general council at Netaji Indoor Stadium on February 12. She has already asked her leaders to go to the area and make people aware of the schemes taken up by the state government in the past four-and-a-half years. 

The Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) is bringing out a book on the development projects that had been completed in the areas covered by 17 Assembly constituencies in the city and its southern fringes. She has cautioned the party leaders to burry hatchets and work together for the elections. Also, she has asked them to go to the people and build intense relationship with them.

CPI(M) leaders, who are still hoping to form an electoral alliance with the Congress, will meet the leaders of CPI and Forward Bloc to discuss about why the alliance is the need of the hour on February 11. 

It may be mentioned that CPI leaders Gurudas Dasgupta and Probodh Panda had said that the matter should be discussed in the Left Front before taking any decision.

The state committee of the CPI(M) will meet on February 12 and 13  to discuss about the possible alliance. Many of the leaders are in favour of the alliance. Leaders like Suryakanta Misra, party’s state secretary, former Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and MP Mohammad Selim have spoken openly in favour of the alliance. It is said that the leaders speaking in favour of the alliance will be able to ‘overpower’ their opponents. The Central Committee of the party is meeting in Delhi on February 17 and 18 to discuss about the resolution taken by the state committee. Party insiders said that the Central Committee might turn down the resolution as there were more members from Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Kerala, who are opposing the alliance saying that it will affect the party’s interest in the long run. 

Meanwhile, the difference in West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee is widening as important leaders are opposing the possible alliance. However, both the Left and Congress leaders are waiting for the final nod of the high command.