Demand for alliance with Cong gets louder within CPI(M) ranks
KOLKATA: The defeat of the 25-yearlong Left regime in Tripura may have dealt a severe blow to the CPI(M) nationally but the debacle has added fuel to a raging debate inside the party — to have or not to have Congress and regional parties as allies against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Manik Sarkar, the outgoing chief minister who headed the Tripura government for 20 years, was opposed to such an alliance at the state or national level.
Two days after the BJP swept Tripura, the demand for an electoral understanding with Congress and regional forces got stronger inside the CPI(M)’S West Bengal unit as it began its fourday state conference.
The meeting began in presence of general secretary Sitaram Yechury, who supports the demand, and his predecessor, Prakash Karat, who vehemently opposes it.
Realising that sparks will fly at the conference, the CPI(M) exercised extreme caution. For the first time, the media was not allowed to enter the venue — Pramod Dasgupta Bhawan, headquarters of the party’s Kolkata unit — to cover the inaugural address of the general secretary. The rest, however, followed tradi- tion.
The meet will continue behind closed doors.
CPI(M) West Bengal secretary Surjya Kanta Mishra placed his internal organisational report before the delegates on Monday. HT saw the report, in which Mishra referred to the “current political crisis” and stressed on the need to have “a broad understanding” with other political forces and even individuals.
“Mishra has not named any party in his report because the electoral understanding we had with the Congress was nullified by the central committee after the alliance failed to yield any result in the 2016 (West Bengal) assem- bly elections,” said a central committee member from the state on condition of anonymity.
“The struggle to form an alternative government cannot proceed without the Left. We have to remove this NDA (National Democratic Alliance) government. These issues will be discussed at our party congress in Hyderabad next month,” said Yechury before the conference began.
A sizeable section of Bengal committee members are happy to see Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao showing interest in forging an alliance by calling upon regional leaders.
The conference will continue until Thursday.