The CPI(M) on Sunday gave out a clarion call for an electoral turnaround in the coming Bengal civic elections in a host of municipalities including the Kolkata Municipal Corporation. launching a vitriolic attack both against the Trinamool Congress for giving “Bengal a corrupt and criminal Government” and the BJP for “trying to import communal politics in a State which was the only one to experience renaissance in western sense of the term”, the Marxist leaders said the “Red flag can never be irrelevant and will continue to flutter in Bengal forever.”
Attacking the Trinamool for giving the State a Government of criminals and corrupt “whose Ministers rule from jails”, former Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee said, “Bengal has become a hell hole under the current regime which is identified by loot, crime, murder and time has come when the people will unite to throw them away.”
Iterating that they had indeed made mistakes when they were in power, the Marxist leaders said they would try to take lessons from those mistakes, urging the gathering to resist onslaughts by the Trinamool. “Now it will be a different kind of struggle as the left supporters will now resist all kinds of onslaughts. The sticks used for the fluttering red flags will now have to be made worthy to win battles,” said State Opposition leader Suryakanto Mishra indicating the apparent combative mood in the party.
Attacking Mamata Banerjee for her “political double standards”, CPI(M) MP Md Salim said, “before the general elections the Chief Minister had in order to appease the minorities, had prescribed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi be arrested and taken to jail by tying a rope around his waist, but now she is going to Delhi to strike a compromise”, asking “I want to know whether Didi is going to Delhi with a rope or a Rakhi to tie it on Modiji’s hands.”
Attacking the Prime Minister for mocking the Opposition in Parliament, CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury said, “there Modiji said that the number of the Opposition members had dwindled so much that they could be accommodated even inside a bus. Now we ask them to look at the BJP’s numbers in Delhi Assembly where they can even fit in an auto-rickshaw.”
The Marxists were attending a mammoth rally of seven lakh people. However, the left leaders said it had crossed 10-lakh mark. Meanwhile, the Chief Minister on Sunday left for Delhi where she was scheduled to meet the Prime Minister and press for an economic package for Bengal including reliving the State of debt burden. The Trinamool Congress on Sunday had released its list of candidates for the ensuing civic elections, becoming the first outfit to do so.
While the party relied mostly on old faces, only 48 new candidates found tickets in the 144-seat KMC elections. The party was fielding 66 women candidates and 20 from the minority communities.