On the Congress move for alliance in West Bengal

Date: 
Thursday, March 29, 2001

Press Statement

The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has issued the following statement:

On the Congress move for alliance in West Bengal

The talks which the Congress is holding with the Trinamul Congress to forge an electoral alliance in West Bengal raises an important question. Is the Congress leadership now veering towards an anti-Communist platform?

While negotiating with the Congress, the Trinamul Congress leader Mamata Banerjee has made it clear that she is willing to have an understanding with the BJP too to forge an anti-CPI(M) front. At no time since her departure from the NDA, has Mamata Banerjee politically attacked the BJP or the Vajpayee government.

The Congress party is being asked to ally with the Trinamul for forging an anti-CPI(M) anti-Left platform. This is not an alliance directed against the BJP and the communal forces. The implications of such an alliance for the Congress should be evident. It means the CPI(M) and Left are to be considered the main enemy. Its consequences, for the Congress at the national level, will be the forfeiting of any claim to be a consistent force fighting the BJP and the NDA alliance.