The CPI(M)’s West Bengal leadership may again raise the demand for an alliance with the Congress before the party’s Central Committee (CC).
The renewed demand comes in the backdrop of the assembly polls in five states, in which the BJP swept Uttar Pradesh and formed governments in Manipur and Assam with help of allies.
The Bengal lobby of the party also wants to point out to the steep rise of the BJP’s vote share in the recent bypoll in West Bengal.
The two-day long meeting of the Central Committee, CPI(M)’s highest executive body, has started on Monday to discuss national political issues and affairs of poll-bound Tripura.
“When there are talks in different parties for a pacts against Narendra Modi-led BJP, can the CPI(M) afford to stay aloof?” said a senior leader from West Bengal, where the party ruled for 34 years and then was ousted by Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress in 2011.
In UP, the Congress joined hands with the Samajwadi Party for the first time this year. RJD chief Lalu Prasad has said that Bihar alliance, where JDU, RJD and the Congress are partners, must continue till 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
Earlier, the Central Committee had snubbed the state unit for going with the Congress in the last assembly polls.
{{/usCountry}}Earlier, the Central Committee had snubbed the state unit for going with the Congress in the last assembly polls.
{{/usCountry}}In its last party Congress, the CPI(M) had decided to strengthen its own organisation and go with the Left democratic forces. As a result, the party didn’t join hands with Nitish Kumar in Bihar or J Jayalalithaa in Tamil Nadu.
But in Bengal, the local comrades almost defied the central diktat and forged an unwritten alliance with the Congress, claiming it was necessary for its survival. Even as the party lost the state polls badly, the Bengal unit defended its action and maintained that they would have fared worse if there was no alliance.