The left Front has finally decided to ally with the Congress in its bid “to overthrow the demonic rule of Mamata Banerjee in Bengal,” but wants the Congress to make a formal move in this regard.
Irrespective of what the CPI(M) politburo decides next week in Delhi the Bengal unit of the CPI(M) is going by the decisions taken at the Kolkata plenum held late last year and at tended by the topmost leaders of the party, sources said.
“We have no problems to hold talks with the Congress if they are interested to make an electoral understanding” Biman Bose CPI(M) politburo member on Thursday said after a Front meeting in Kolkata.
“As the decisions in the Congress Party are taken by their high command they must make their stand clear before we take a final decision on the issue of alliance,” Bose said adding some other parties had also written to the left leadership for an alliance and that the Front was expecting the same from the Congress if an alliance had to crystalise in the State.
“let them first sit with us” he said. “If they do not sit with us how can we have a dialogue with themIJ” Bose asked. He however gave a circuitous reply to posers as to whether the left would approach the Congress if it did not make the first move.
“That question does not apply now as what their State-level leaders does not matter. What matters is what their high command thinks about the alliance.” Incidentally, dropping enough indications that the Congress also had alliance in its mind its vice president Rahul Gandhi would not attack the CPI(M) while addressing his rallies in Kerala. He rather concentrated his attacks against the BJP.
Meanwhile former Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee who is also a former politburo member was quoted as saying “the Bengal party knows how to tackle its situations and how to deal with such issues” when he was asked about efforts made by the Prakash Karat lobby in Delhi to spike the alliance in Bengal.