Following days of poll violence in West Bengal, Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader Brinda Karat on Wednesday hit out at the Trinamool Congress (TMC) and said that the alliance will be decided “after consulting the party leaders of the state”.
Both CPI(M) and TMC are part of the 26-party Opposition alliance, which finalised its name as Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA). The Opposition parties met for a two-day brainstorming session in Bengaluru on July 17-18 to stitch a united alliance against the NDA in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
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Highlighting the discussion held during the Opposition meet, Brinda Karat said that they held a discussion to save the Constitution. “TMC’s dictatorship was seen in Bengal during the Panchayat elections. To save the constitution and democracy in West Bengal, the (alliance) will be decided after consulting the party leaders of the state. I want to say one thing that you cannot save democracy by attacking it,” Brinda Karat was quoted as saying by ANI.
Earlier on July 17, CPI-M general secretary Sitaram Yechury too had ruled out any alliance with the TMC in West Bengal and said that “secular parties” along with the Left and the Congress will take on the BJP as well as the TMC in the state.
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“The situation is different in every state. The effort is to ensure that in these situations the division of votes which gives BJP the advantage should be minimal. This is not a new thing. Like in 2004, the Left had 61 seats, out of which we won 57 defeating the Congress candidates…then Manmohan Singh government was formed and it ran for 10 years,” Yechury said.
“Mamata and CPI(M) will not happen. There will be secular parties along with the Left and the Congress in West Bengal which will fight against the BJP and TMC,” the CPI(M) general secretary was quoted as saying by news agency PTI.
West Bengal has been a bone of contention within the Opposition ranks with the Left parties and Mamata Banerjee’s TMC not seeing eye to eye. The Left parties have also attacked Banerjee over the violence in the recently concluded panchayat polls in the state with nearly 50 people of various political parties, including BJP, Congress and TMC, were killed.
However, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, whose TMC swept the panchayat elections claimed that 19 people died in poll-related violence since June 8.