The CPI(M) Polit Bureau member Pinarayi Vijayan has said that the CPI(M) has not entered into any alliance with the Congress in West Bengal, though the party has made common cause with all those who has desire to ouster the Mamata Banerjee Government.
Mr. Vijayan, who was addressing a ‘meet-the-press’ programme in Thiruvananthapuram, he could not go into specifics of the electoral arrangements in Bengal. “I can comment on specific issues only after studying these in detail,” he said.
Replying to questions, the CPI(M) leader said there was no ambiguity in the Opposition Left Democratic Front's liquor policy. The LDF's goal was to bringing down liquor consumption in stages. In the LDF manifesto, the alliance has promised to peg the legal age for liquor consumption at 23 years. “Our policy is abstinence. It is not our policy to fool the people with false promises,” he said.
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On CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury’s statement that, if elected to power, the LDF would not reopen the bars that have been shut down by the United Democratic Front (UDF) government, he said the LDF would consider his statement when formulating the LDF government's liquor policy. When the LDF came to power in 1996, shortly after the A.K. Antony government banned arrack sale, there was talk that its government would withdraw the arrack ban, but that did not happen, Mr. Vijayan pointed out.