Underlining that the BJP is the main threat to the Left parties in West Bengal, former Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee said here on Saturday that a face-off between the Left and the BJP is ‘imminent’.
He was addressing a gathering on the occasion of the 49th anniversary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist)’s mouthpiece Ganashakti.
Saffron flags Referring to the long history of Left-led peasants and workers’ movement in Bengal, he questioned the existence of ‘saffron flags’ in the political history of the State.
Even Syama Prasad Mookerjee, the founder of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh (the BJP’s predecessor), was not able to plant a single ‘poison tree’ [of communalism] in the State, Mr. Bhattacharjee said.
Stating that the people of Bengal were the inheritors of the traditions of Bengal’s renaissance, Mr. Bhattacharjee, also a member of the Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), argued that they would never surrender to communal forces.
Attacking a section of the media for branding the BJP as the successor of the Trinamool Congress (TMC) in Bengal, he said that such media houses were stating that “the Left’s supporters should go over to the BJP.”
“We are waiting for that magic to happen,” he added.
Admitting that several of Left’s supporters have joined the BJP to seek protection from the TMC’s attack, he added that they did so unwillingly.
No other minister in Bengal was jailed during his term, he said, referring to Transport Minister Madan Mitra’s arrest for his alleged involvement in the multi-crore Saradha Group scam.
He wondered whether the TMC had any moral right to stay in power despite this.
