The Hindu : Bandhs usher in Bengal new year

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Dec 31, 2002

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Bandhs usher in Bengal new year

By Our Special Correspondent

KOLKATA DEC. 30. West Bengal would usher in 2003 with two State-wide bandhs — the first one has been called by the Party for Democratic Socialism (PDS), the breakaway group of the CPI (M), and the other by the SUCI, a small Left grouping outside the ruling Left Front. The former Marxists have backers in Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress. The Opposition Congress, however, has decided to keep itself off bandhs.

The PDS leaders today announced that the party would observe a 12-hour Bengal bandh on January 10 in protest against what it called the failures of the Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee Government. The SUCI's bandh, planned on January 27, is for almost the same reasons cited by the PDS.

``We hope the Opposition parties in Bengal would support our bandh call which is in protest against the hike in court fees, the Front Government's inability to resist the withdrawal of cross-subsidy on power and so on,'' the PDS leader, Samir Putatunda, said.

Mr. Putatunda and another party leader, Saifuddin Choudhury, had urged the State Congress to back its bandh call but it refused saying it was opposed to measures which hampered development.

The Trinamool, however, grabbed the opportunity saying it appreciated the logic behind the PDS' decision. Ms. Banerjee is expected to announce her party's support for the bandh during a rally on January 6.

The PDS' proximity to the Trinamool is raising eyebrows in Left circles which always thought the grouping was essentially Leftist.

This could be seen as the PDS' desperation to survive in the politically-polarised State.

After its miserable performance in the previous Assembly elections, the PDS realised that it would have no political future unless it allied with the mainline Opposition parties.

Initially, the Congress was warm to the idea but when it heard that the PDS was warming up to the Trinamool too, it distanced itself.

The PDS, having no bases in the State, is now clinging on to the Trinamool which expects to challenge the communists in the coming panchayat elections in collaboration with the BJP.

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