(Top) CPM bandh enforcers block a road near Swabhumi on Monday as policemen look on; BJP activists demonstrate on the middle of the road at Esplanade. Pictures by Sanat Kumar Sinha and Anindya Shankar Ray

Calcutta, July 5: The Left’s 12-hour strike that coincided with the BJP’s Bharat bandh has given Mamata Banerjee and the state Congress the chance to accuse the CPM of being “hand in glove with the communal party”.

The Trinamul Congress chief today dwelt at length on the Left’s “long-standing bonhomie” with the BJP. Accusing the CPM of “collaborating with the BJP” to call the strike, she mentioned at a news conference at her Kalighat home how the two parties had earlier staged a walkout in Parliament during the budget session.

“The CPM had supported BJP candidates during the Lok Sabha polls in Bengal to jeopardise the prospects of our nominees. The CPM is very much with the communal BJP everywhere in the country. They are two flowers on the same stalk,” she said.

The imagery, albeit unwittingly, brings to mind the symbol of her own party — two flowers and grass.

Mamata also took the opportunity to try to further alienate the CPM from the minorities, sections of which have been voting against the Left in successive elections since the 2008 panchayat polls.

Trinamul sources said Mamata had instructed her aides to campaign against the CPM in minority-dominated belts to highlight how the CPM had “joined hands” with the BJP to make today’s bandh a success in Bengal.

“We have begun telling people in the minority-dominated areas in Bengal about how the CPM is colluding with the communal BJP to achieve cheap political gains,” said Trinamul’s Sultan Ahmed, the junior Union minister for tourism.

Mamata said that by calling the bandh, the CPM had not championed the people’s cause but “served its own political purpose”.

By political purpose, Mamata may have meant that the CPM, buffeted by the losses in the civic polls and the Lok Sabha elections, was using the strike to get closer to the people.

The Trinamul chief had a message for ally Congress too. “We are unhappy about the fuel price hike. I am protesting in a democratic manner. But I cannot break away from the government at this juncture because this would necessitate a fresh election,” she said.

The state Congress too was vocal about the “CPM-BJP nexus”. “Today’s strike has further exposed how the CPM is hand in glove with the BJP,” said state Congress president Manas Bhuniya, echoing Mamata.

The Left, concerned that its bandh coinciding with that of the BJP might further alienate the minorities, tried to hide behind the excuse of “we called the bandh first”. “The fact that our strikes have coincided have sent a wrong message to the people, particularly the minorities. But we had called the strike first and the BJP followed suit,” RSP leader Manoj Bhattacharya said.

CPM state secretary Biman Bose said his party “had no understanding with the BJP”. “Our strike call had nothing to do with either the Congress or the BJP. We had called the strike much earlier than the BJP.”