Tactics in Bengal against CPM line, says Politburo

The two-day meeting saw Karat and many central leaders such as Subhashini Ali argue that the Bengal unit transgressed the political-tactical line. They said that the Bengal unit should have strived for advancing the independent strength of the party and projecting the Left democratic alternative instead of aligning with a bourgeoisie party.

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Bengal leaders, sources said, argued that the cooperation was part of “people’s resistance” to fight the Trinamool, which had unleashed a “campaign of terror”. Sources said they even advocated continuation of the “joint struggle” to take on the TMC. They argued that the alliance was needed for the survival of the party in the state. At the end, the Karat line prevailed and, in a rare development, the Politburo made public its conclusion.

Yechury later told reporters that there will still be “united struggles” and resistance with the Congress and other secular parties in Bengal against the violence unleashed by the TMC against the opposition. The Politburo noted that the “the strength of the people’s unity is the answer to meet this unprecedented unleashing of violence”.

Bengal leaders also indulged in wordplay later, arguing that the Politburo used the word “evolved”, which is a vindication of their stance. A senior Politburo member, however, said, “How can a tactic evolve on its own. It is just wordplay,” he told The Indian Express.

Asked why the party had not intervened during the campaign, when the alliance was quite visible — Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee even shared the stage with Rahul Gandhi — he said the party did not want to disturb the elections. He said the Politburo would have come to the same conclusion even if the party had won. “It has nothing to do with the results,” the Politburo member said. The decision means the CPM state units will not have the flexibility to repeat the Bengal experiment with Congress or dominant regional parties in upcoming polls.

The Congress said the CPM need not be wise by hindsight. “Everybody can be wise by hindsight… there was a conscious arrangement, not a coalition. I think we should be as graceful in victory, semi-victory or defeat…. They have the right to discuss (the results) within their party,” senior Congress leader Abhishek Singhvi said.