A day after the Left’s best poll performance in Bihar in two-and-a-half decades, CPI-ML general-secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya expressed his disappointment at the Left Front’s stand vis–à–vis Trinamul in Bengal.
The CPI-ML chief, whose party won 12 of the 19 seats it contested in Bihar, said the Left in Bengal should identify the BJP and not Mamata Banerjee’s party as the enemy.
“So far, many in the Left have been treating Trinamul as the Number One target because it is in power. But the BJP is the growing danger in Bengal,” he said. “Rather than competing with the BJP in opposing Trinamul, it should be the other way round…. the BJP has to be recognised as the biggest threat to democracy across the country and in Bengal. One of the problems in Bengal is that many of our comrades there are not viewing state politics in the context of national politics.”
Given its unflinching stand of equidistance from the BJP and Trinamul, Alimuddin Street did not take this kindly.
“It is ridiculous, what he said. Solely on the basis of one decent performance in the Bihar polls, such sweeping statements should not be made,” said a CPM central committee member.
Front chairman Biman Bose, in Malda on Wednesday, told journalists about the allegedly communal nature of both the BJP and Trinamul. “Therefore, the question of forming an alliance with Trinamul in Bengal, for elections or otherwise, does not arise. The Left will fight both the BJP and Trinamul here,” said Bose, without taking Bhattacharya’s name. “We don’t need to blindly emulate the Bihar model.… Trinamul has no ideology, morality or ethics. It brought the BJP to Bengal.”
CPM politburo member Mohammed Salim was caustic. “Sorry to say this, those who see Bengal with a telescopic view might have a different understanding, far removed from reality…. Trinamul was created to join the NDA and facilitate the BJP’s entry to Bengal and eliminate the Left.”
CPM general-secretary Sitaram Yechury said it would be wrong to assume that joining forces against the BJP in Bengal would benefit anybody but the saffron camp. “Without fighting Trinamul, the BJP cannot be fought in Bengal,” said Yechury. “Trinamul has been in power in Bengal and there is massive popular discontent against it. If all non-BJP forces stand with Trinamul in Bengal, with the BJP in the Opposition, who other than the BJP will benefit from it?”
However, Trinamul spokesperson Saugata Roy welcomed Bhattacharya’s suggestions.
“Fighting on two fronts is a grave strategic error. Napoleon and Hitler understood that the hard way. Will the Left in Bengal also realise that after it is too late?” asked Roy, adding that indirectly or directly, the Left in Bengal should help Mamata in the fight against the BJP “for the nation’s sake”.