CPM hints at Bengal alliance with Congress

When mediapersons pointed out that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had taken the Congress’s help to come to power, and asked if the CPM could do something similar to oust the TMC, Deb said, “The party cannot rule out issue-based understanding with the Congress. In fact, the CPM had supported the Congress-led UPA government for four and-a-half years.”

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The CPM leader added that the leftist Centre of Indian Trade Unions and the Left parties are going on a strike with the Congress-backed Indian National Trade Union Congress in September. “So the Congress is not untouchable to us,” he said.

Deb said seat sharing between the Congress and the CPM had not been discussed so far, but some sort of an understanding could not be ruled out in the near future.

Deb, who is known to have a substantial support base, holds charge of the North 24 Parganas district, which still has some pockets where the CPM wields influence. During his stint as housing minister, he built the Rajarhat township, which has since been hit by allegations of unfair allotment of plots.

His remarks mirror the thinking of a large section of the CPM and the West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee (WBPCC) leaders. Bhattacharjee, Gautam Deb, Md Salim and Surya Kanta Mishra of the CPM are on the same page on the issue, which is said to have been internally debated in recent times, top CPM sources said. Bhattacharjee, especially, is learnt to be pushing for an alliance.

The line of thought has gained further momentum ever since Sitaram Yechury took over as CPM general secretary.

A few challenges, however, remain. One is the fact that the Left and the Congress are at loggerheads in Kerala, with little possibility of a patch-up. In Bengal, too, some senior CPM leaders such as Biman Bose and Madan Ghosh are learnt to be opposed to the idea.

Within the WBPCC, a majority of leaders want to join hands with the Left Front to take on the TMC. Referring to Deb’s comments, senior WBPCC leader Abdul Manna said, “We told Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi about forming such a front with the Left in Bengal one year ago. The high command is not averse to it. You need to do anything and everything to remove a Fascist party like the TMC.” Others, like Somen Mitra and Pradip Bhattacharjee, are also learnt to be in favour of the idea.

When contacted, TMC’s Firad Hakim claimed, “Very little of the Congress is left in Bengal. Most Congress men are already with the TMC. Those who are left will never align with the CPM because they are the ones who murdered, killed and raped thousands of Congress supporters in Bengal for 34 years. The CPM has very little credibility left in Bengal.”

In the last assembly elections in 2011, the TMC and the Congress fought together to secure 48.5 per cent of the vote share. The Left Front got 41 per cent of the votes at the time.

During the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, all three parties fought separately. The TMC got 39 per cent of the votes — as many as the CPM-led Left Front (29.5 per cent) and the Congress (9.5 per cent) put together.

But many in the political circles feel that the Congress and the CPM would not be able to work together as a homogeneous unit and vote for each other’s candidates, given the history of political rivalry between the two parties.