CPI(M) top brass will meet here on Monday to give final touches to its poll strategy in Bihar and discuss preparations for next year’s assembly elections in West Bengal and Kerala.
Besides this, issues like the Allahabad High Court verdict on the Ayodhya case and the Kashmir situation are likely to come up for discussion at a two-day meet of the CPI(M) Politburo from October 4.
Preparations in the run-up to the assembly elections in the Left bastions of West Bengal and Kerala would be debated at the meeting, which is likely to be attended by West Bengal and Tripura Chief Ministers, Buddhadeb Bhattacharya and Manik Sarkar, along with other top leaders.
While the party has recently concluded that a ‘third alternative’ or a common platform on policies and programmes would take time, it has finalised a seat-sharing pact with Left parties, CPI and CPI-ML (Liberation), for the November elections in Bihar.
The three parties have jointly decided to contest at least 130 of 243 seats against the ruling NDA, RJD-LJP combine and the Congress, with the CPI(M) fighting in 20, CPI in 32 and CPI-ML (Liberation) in 78.
At its recent extended Central Committee meet in Hyderabad, the party decided to project a Left and democratic alternative and strengthen Left unity through united actions.
The electoral understanding in Bihar is a step in that direction, party sources said.
The CPI(M) last month expelled its senior State leader and a former Bhagalpur MP Subodh Roy from its primary membership for “grave anti-party activities”. Mr. Roy is now contesting the State polls on a JD(U) ticket.
In its strongest base of West Bengal, the CPI(M) has been under attack from Trinamool Congress and has suffered several electoral reverses. It claimed to have lost over 100 workers to violence by Maoists and alleged that the Trinamool Congress was colluding with the extremists.
After it lost the Lok Sabha polls in Kerala, the party alleged that the Congress-led UDF was “consolidating communal and reactionary forces” behind it and sources said that electoral strategy for the two States would be worked out in this context.
Following the Ayodhya verdict, the CPI(M) Politburo would take stock of the situation and its fall-out. The party has noted that despite electoral setbacks to the BJP, there has been no let-up on communal activities.
The Congress has been designated by the party as the “prime mover of neo-liberal policies” which also favours a “pro—US” foreign policy.
In its fight against both Congress and BJP, the CPI(M) leaders would chalk out tactics on how to cooperate with non-Congress secular parties which were willing to take up people’s issues and defend secularism both inside Parliament and outside, they said.
