CPI: Will take call on CPM-Congress ‘alliance’ after getting proposal

Asked for the CPI’s independent views on the issue, he said, “Let there be a formal proposal first, then we will take a call on it.”

Referring to the public rallies of former chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and CPM state secretary Surya Kanta Mishra in which they had called upon Congress to join hands with the Left Front, Dasgupta said, “What Bhattacharjee or Mishra have said at a rally is not the party line.”

Not completely eliminating the possibilities of an alliance between Congress and the Left, the senior CPI leader said since democracy is under attack by the current dispensation, their first priority was to get rid of the Trinamool government from Bengal. “We want to strengthen Left unity and it must not be compromised under any circumstances. We want to restore democracy in Bengal and in order to do it, we need to do whatever is required to be done. We can assure that the Left’s strength will not come down because of us,” Dasgupta said.

Referring to the possibility of a CPM-Congress alliance, CPI state secretary Prabodh Panda said even though there had been no formal proposal, a tie-up was not necessarily an answer to their electoral issues. “Politics is not algebra. We have seen in the past that even when it looked like a tie-up was inevitable, the Left Front had won convincingly on its own. We believe the best tie-up is that with the people and we will contest elections keeping the support of the masses in mind,” he said.

Panda said considering the deteriorating law and order situation in the state, it was imminent that people from all sections of the society will unite to ensure that remove the TMC government. “TMC hatao, bangla bachao (Remove TMC, save Bengal) is our present slogan. We also need to disabuse people’s minds of the notion that the communal and corporate-friendly BJP had created. Looking at the responses that we are getting, we are sure people from all walks of life are looking for a change and the Left Front is the only viable alternative. Democratic, secular parties should also unite in the mission,” Panda said.

CPM will hold a two-day state committee meet from February 12 to take a final call on the issue of forming alliance for the Assembly elections.