Left upbeat, TMC shrugs off impact

Desperate for an alliance with the Congress ahead of a challenging Assembly election, Left leaders on Monday kept an eager watch on the PCC leaders’ meeting with Rahul Gandhi in Delhi.

On the other hand, brimming with confidence, Trinamul Congress leaders claimed that the Congress-CPI(M) alliance notwithstanding, the ruling party would win a landslide victory decimating the Opposition.

“CPI(M) satraps were glued to television sets. As soon as the 90 minute meeting ended at Rahul Gandhi’s Tughlaq Lane bungalow, state Congress leaders came out to speak to the waiting mediapersons. Our party leaders listened very keenly to what the Congress leaders, particularly state party president Adhir Chowdhury, had to say,” a CPI(M) state secretariat member said.

Left Front chairman Biman Bose was visiting Murshidabad on Monday. It was not clear whether he himself caught the news on television or was briefed by some local party leaders but he was aware of the development in Delhi when he addressed the media in Berhampore.

“The (state Congress leaders’) meeting with Rahul Gandhi was the first step. He himself said that he would speak to Congress president Sonia Gandhi (about the alliance). After he discusses it with the party president, the matter will proceed,” he explained.

In reply to another question, Mr Bose said his party had said it not once but hundreds of times that it was ready for “people’s grand alliance” to oust Trinamul Congress. Before Mr Bose, CPI(M) state secretary and leader of Opposition Surjya Kanta Mishra and politburo member and former chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee have also strongly advocated an alliance with Congress and have publicly asked it to make their stand clear.

Both Trinamul Congress and BJP however took pot-shots at CPI(M) and Congress for their “desperation” for an electoral adjustment. Food minister Jyotipriya Mullick said that if the two Opposition parties forged an alliance then Congress supporters would vote for TMC.

“How can Congress workers accept an alliance with CPI(M), which is responsible for so many atrocities on them Congress and Left Front will not even cross double digit figures while TMC will bag 250 of the 294 Assembly seats,” he predicted.

Echoing Mr Mullick’s opinion, state panchayat minister Subrata Mukherjee said that TMC was in such an invincible position that even if all Opposition parties joined hands they would not be able to defeat it. BJP MLA Shamik Bhattacharya said that their eagerness for an alliance betrayed Congress and CPI(M)’s political bankruptcy.