Congress V-P seeks opinion on CPM tieup

Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi has invited state party leaders to seek their opinion on a possible alliance with the CPI(M) for the coming Assembly elections in West Bengal.

Top state leaders, including state party president Adhir Chowdhury, are likely to meet Mr Gandhi at his residence at 10.30 am on February 1.

Expressing happiness over Mr Gandhi’s invitation, Mr Chowdhury said he would apprise the party vice-president of the ground realities in Bengal. “I have toured across the state and have observed a growing public anger against the Trinamul Congress misrule. The people who had voted for Mamata Banerjee’s party for a change now desperately want another,” he claimed.

Mr Chowdhury explained that the people as well as workers of the Left Front and the Congress at grassroots levels feel that they should all come together to defeat the Trinamul Congress.

“The CPI(M) leadership has also heard this vox populi and therefore it publicly advocated an alliance with the Congress,” Mr Chowdhury said.

Like Mr Chowdhury, heavyweight state leaders like Somen Mitra, Abu Hashem Khan Chowdhury, Deepa Das Munsi, Abdul Mannan, Omprakash Mishra are also in favour of an alliance. Mr Mishra has in fact even sent a letter to party president Sonia Gandhi in which he has tried to prove with the support of statistics that if the Congress and the Left Front forge an alliance then they are likely to win between 160 to 170 Assembly seats.

However, there has been some dissenting voices in the state unit of the party as well. Senior Congress MLA Manas Bhunia, for instance, has announced that he would prefer the party to go it alone instead of joining hands with the CPI(M). “However, like a discipline soldier of the party I will accept whatever decision our party high command takes in this regard,” he said.

Congress Rajya Sabha MP and former state party president Pradip Bhattacharya, however, strongly opposed any alliance with the CPI(M). “We must remember that with West Bengal, Assembly polls are also due in Kerala. In Kerala, the CPI(M) is our main political rival and here in Bengal we are eager to join hands with the party. This dichotomy is dangerous for the Congress. Moreover, we should also keep in mind the 2019 Lok Sabha elections before entering into an alliance with the Left,” he said.

Contrary to the Congress, the CPI(M) camp is unanimous on an alliance. In fact, after CPI(M) state secretary Surjya Kanta Mishra, even politburo member and former chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee has directly asked the Congress leadership to take a call soon whether they want to join force with the Left or not to oust the TMC from power in the state.