West Bengal Assembly polls | CPI(M)-led alliance’s stand ‘narrow, short-sighted, suicidal’, says Dipankar Bhattacharya

We took a deliberate decision to distance ourselves from the front, says CPI(ML)

CPI (M-L) general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya. File

The CPI(M)-led alliance has taken a “narrow, short-sighted, suicidal” political line underestimating the BJP while targeting Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and the Trinamool Congress, CPI(ML) general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya has said.

Mr. Bhattacharya told The Hindu that the CPI(ML) took a deliberate decision to distance itself from the CPI(M)-led front and decided to go it alone in Bengal.

“The West Bengal Assembly should not be looked only through the prism of anti-incumbency against the Trinamool Congress government. The growth of the BJP should also not be attributed to this factor alone,” he said.

He said despite the aggressive stand against the State government, the CPI(M)’s own vote share is declining and their supporters have been switching over to the BJP.

“If their policy is successful then this would not have happened. Despite this, they are following a narrow, short-sighted suicidal policy that the TMC has to be removed even if the BJP were to come to power,” he said.

Also read: Any subservience to Congress will be suicidal for Left in West Bengal, says CPI(ML) leader Dipankar Bhattacharya

Even in the first joint rally of the alliance, Mr. Bhattacharya said, there was no serious reflection on the working of the BJP-led Union government. “In fact, the Brigade Grounds rally was used as a launch pad for Abbas Siddiqui [head of the newly formed Indian Secular Front),” he said.

He pointed out that Mr .Siddiqui said in the rally that the more the BJP is attacked the more they grow. “It is very surprising that a seasoned party like the CPI(M) gave so many seats to a newly formed party like the ISF.”