The CPM and its Left allies took out a march in Calcutta on Friday to protest against violence following the publication of the Assembly poll results and called for a united resistance to protect Bengal’s culture.

The rally, which began from the Lenin statue at Esplanade, was projected by the Left leadership as both a political warning and an attempt to regroup democratic forces after the BJP’s sweeping electoral victory in Bengal.

The protest also centred around the vandalism of a statue of Soviet revolutionary Vladimir Lenin at Jiaganj in Murshidabad district on Tuesday night. According to local allegations, a group of BJP supporters gathered near the statue in front of Sripat Singh College, severed its head with a hacksaw and later pulled down the structure from its pedestal.

Even as the Left highlighted the demolition of Lenin’s statue as symbolic of an ideological assault, leaders accused “victory mobs” of targeting ordinary people in several districts after the counting of votes. They alleged that attacks on homes, shops and livelihoods had created an atmosphere of fear in different parts of the state.

“Is this the change the BJP leadership had promised to the people of Bengal?” senior CPM leader and Left Front chairman Biman Bose asked while addressing the gathering, alleging that “ruthless aggression” was being unleashed in the name of victory celebrations.

The rally was attended by leaders of the CPM, CPI, RSP, Forward Bloc, CPI(ML) Liberation, and smaller Left parties. CPM leader Srideep Bhattacharya, Swapan Banerjee of the CPI, Naren Chatterjee of the Forward Bloc, Atanu Chakraborty of the CPI (ML) Liberation and RSP general secretary Manoj Bhattacharya addressed the
gathering.