NEW DEHI: “Congress will suffer,” cautioned Community Party of India (Marxist) general secretary MA Baby on the party’s decision to not fight the West Bengal assembly polls in alliance with the Left. The Congress leadership should have explored possibilities with the Left to bolster the fight to keep BJP-RSS out, he said. The Congress and Left Front had contested together in 2021. CPM, which has witnessed a decline in the state, is optimistic of improving its standing as CPI(ML) Liberation has come on board this time to fight the polls with the Left front and some smaller Left groups are expected to join. CPM general secretary felt together they will be able to put up a good fight.“CPM polit bureau has appealed to the people of West Bengal to defeat the authoritarian, anti-women and anti-poor rule of TMC and also the communal BJP by voting for the Left front,” the party said in a statement.Baby also rejected West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee’s statement that Kerala has been renamed as Keralam since there is an alliance growing between BJP and CPM. “The alliance is not unwritten any more after today,” Banerjee had said after the Union cabinet gave its nod to the name change.Baby said CPM and other Left parties were fighting hard in Kerala to keep out BJP. He went on to remind that it was Banerjee who had joined the BJP-led NDA govt in 1999 and had also held the railway minister’s portfolio.His remarks came at a briefing following the CPM polit bureau’s meeting where among various issues it resolved that alliances with INDIA bloc members must be explored wherever possible to defeat BJP. The leadership also reviewed the preparedness for the upcoming elections in Kerala, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Assam and Puducherry.Baby said that in Kerala, where there is a CPM-led govt, the party’s poll campaign will be led by Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan. The party also plans to take a decision on finalising the list of candidates by the end of first week of March. “In Kerala, despite the constant efforts of the BJP-led Union government to strangulate the LDF government, it had put up its best performance by focusing on the elimination of extreme poverty, the first state to do so in the country, improve public health and education, ensure the protection of the rights of the workers and regular supply of essential items through the PDS,” the CPM said in its statement. The Left party alleged that the Congress-led UDF is mobilising huge amounts of money and rallying various kinds of sectarian forces in its support. “It is playing a disruptive role inside the Assembly and outside by coordinating with the BJP. The BJP is also trying to expand in the state by promoting communal divisions. Both these forces have to be defeated,” it said. “We appeal to the people to re-elect the DMK alliance in order to defeat the communal machinations and strengthen the secular traditions of the state,” the party said.On Assam polls, the CPM alleged that the BJP is running a rabidly communal and divisive campaign and is hoping to benefit from it. “Considering the larger interests of the people of Assam, as the largest opposition party, it is upon the Congress to ensure that anti-BJP votes are not split and the BJP is defeated,” the Left party emphasised.
