Senior leaders of several Left parties on Sunday came together at the Brigade Parade Grounds here on Sunday, and called for the removal of the BJP government at the Centre and the defeat of the Trinamool Congress in West Bengal.
Slogans of “BJP hatao desh bachao , Trinamool hatao Bangla bachao” (Remove BJP save country, defeat Trinamool save Bengal) were raised by workers of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), the Communist Party of India, the All India Forward Bloc and the Revolutionary Socialist Party at a rally that was called to highlight the support base and strength of the Left parties in the State.
Former West Bengal Chief Minister and veteran CPI(M) leader Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, who has been ailing for some time, made a public appearance after several months. Mr. Bhattacharjee, however, did not come on stage or address the gathering.
In the well-attended rally, several Left leaders made repeated references to the united Opposition rally, where leaders from 23 parties came together at the same venue on January 19 and called for the defeat of the BJP in the Lok Sabha poll.
“I have seen photographs of the rally held here, where leaders gave a call to remove [Prime Minister Narendra] Modi… There is a need to remove both the governments — BJP from Centre and Trinamool from Bengal,” CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury said.
‘Policies not leader’
Mr. Yechury said the country did not need a leader but proper policies (“ Neta nahin , niti ki jaroorat ”). Referring to comments made by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee accusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi of “orchestrating riots and killing people”, Mr. Yechury asked why the Trinamool chairperson had become a Minister in the NDA government after the riots in Gujarat.
Describing both the BJP and the Trinamool Congress as two faces of the same coin, the CPI(M) general secretary said both parties were indulging in shadow- boxing.
Left parties such as the CPI-ML (Liberation) also joined the rally.
