‘We are together’: Left-Congress alliance to continue in Bengal

Amid speculation about the future of their alliance in West Bengal after the humiliating assembly poll defeat, the Left Front and the Congress said on Monday their tie-up will continue.

Amid speculation about the future of their alliance in West Bengal after the humiliating assembly poll defeat, the Left Front and the Congress said on Monday their tie-up will continue.

West Bengal Pradesh Congress president Adhir Chowdhury (second from left), CPI-M state secretary Suryakanta Mishra (third from left) with other party members at the Raj Bhavan in Kolkata. (PTI Photo)

“We are going to stay together,” said state Congress chief Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, after submitting a joint deputation to governor Keshari Nath Tripathi along with CPI-M state secretary Surjya Kanta Mishra and other Left leaders regarding post poll violence allegedly perpetrated by the ruling Trinamool Congress.

“The elections might be over but as you can see the alliance is still intact. That is why we are here together,” he said.

Mishra also said: “We might have lost the polls but the alliance will stay intact. In fact, we have to strengthen and expand the people’s alliance.”

In the Bengal assembly polls, the Trinamool won a whooping 211 seats in the 294-member house. The Left-Congress alliance finished second with 77 seats.

The opposition parties in Bengal -- Left Front, Congress and the BJP -- also threatened to boycott the swearing-in ceremony of the Mamata Banerjee government, scheduled for May 27.

“Looking at the condition of the people (who are being attacked), we are not mentally prepared to attend the ceremony and the festivity that surrounds it,” Chowdhury said in reference to the recent spate of post-poll violence in the state.