With an eye on the Lok Sabha polls, the CPI(M)-led Left Front is hoping to regain its lost ground in West Bengal with a mega rally here next week.
The rally is scheduled to be held at Brigade Parade Ground, the same venue where the ruling Trinamool Congress organised its mega Opposition meet on January 19. As many as 24 political parties, including the Congress and major regional parties such as the SP, BSP and DMK, had come together at the rally, vowing to defeat the BJP in the Lok Sabha polls.
The Left Front had skipped the TMC rally, stating that the ruling party in the State was no better as it had destroyed “democracy and its institutions”.
“We will give the call to oust the TMC in Bengal and the BJP at the Centre. The people of this country are fed up with the Modi government, they want a change,” CPI(M) State secretary Surya Kanta Mishra said.
The CPI(M)-led Front is making all efforts to ensure the rally’s success. From flags, posters, slogans and roadside meetings to social media messages on Twitter and Facebook, the party is trying to reach out to the masses.
Once a formidable force in West Bengal, the Left Front lost to the TMC in 2011, ending a 34-year regime in the State.
The BJP, too, outsmarted the CPI(M) and the Congress to become the main Opposition in Bengal.
The role of the Left parties in national politics largely depends on the number of seats it will win from the State.
In 2004, the CPI(M)-led Left Front played a pivotal role in forming the UPA-I government by winning 35 Lok Sabha seats from the State. Nationally, the Front had won 62 seats. In 2014, the CPI(M) had won just two seats in Bengal, while the Left Front secured 11 seats.
