Forward Bloc leader Ashok Ghosh with Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee on Monday

Calcutta, June 22: Forward Bloc leader Ashok Ghosh today said Left unity could not be achieved sitting at Alimuddin Street as the “struggle ahead is difficult’’, a day after he declared in the presence of the CPM brass that the alliance would stay in power no matter what people said.

“In 2009, only the Forward Bloc had realised that the front was facing a crisis. It is only our party, which had realised that the front was losing its revolutionary character…. We are facing a critical situation now. At this juncture, Left unity is a must. But that cannot be achieved sitting at Alimuddin Street. We have to fan out to the districts and create better co-ordination among the partners,” Ghosh told a party gathering on its foundation day.

At Netaji Indoor Stadium yesterday, on the occasion of the front government’s 33rd anniversary, the Bloc state secretary had said: “Let people say whatever they want. The Left Front government is here to stay and will remain so after next year’s Assembly elections. I want to say this to those who are dreaming of dislodging us and occupying the chief minister’s chair.”

Today, Ghosh also said the front had failed to properly implement the programmes it had initially intended to un- dertake. “The programmes we had decided upon to run the Left Front government have not been implemented fully and properly, though the Forward Bloc has tried its best to do so,” Ghosh said at Mahajati Sadan.

Yesterday, he had asserted that a tough fight could be waged against the Opposition on the basis of the programmes the front had undertaken.