CPI-M rejects Mamata's demand for early Bengal polls

The Communist Party of India-Marxist today rejected as untenable Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee's demand for early assembly elections in West Bengal following its victory in the civic polls.

The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) on Wednesday rejected as untenable Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee's demand for early assembly elections in West Bengal following its victory in the civic polls.

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"Only 16 per cent of the states' electorate have taken part in the civic polls. Based on that alone such a demand smacks of a certain mindest, which is against the overall understanding of the constitutional process," CPI-M leader Nilotpal Basu said.

The Trinamool Congress wrested control of the prestigious Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) in an electoral sweep of the civic polls that saw it humble West Bengal's ruling Left Front across the state.

The state's urban voters gave the thumbs down to the Left, which suffered a humiliating defeat although the major opposition parties, the Trinamool Congress and the Congress, failed to come to an electoral understanding.

Basu, who is also a member of the party's central secretariat, said the Left Front government had after the setback in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections done an internal exercise to "put in place corrective measures at the government and organisational level".

The CPI-M leader said there was one year still left for the assembly polls and the Left Front would be able to reverse the downslide.