Bengal warm to UPA, but Kerala begs to differ

NEW DELHI: The CPM central committee may have been unanimous in serving an ultimatum to the Manmohan Singh government, but members from its two Left bastions — West Bengal and Kerala — are sharply divided when it comes to the Manmohan Singh government’s performance. While the West Bengal comrades made it a point to assert that the government in Delhi is “mindful of the state’s interests”, those from faction-ridden Kerala were critical that they had been getting a raw deal all through.

But leaders from both the states stood united in backing the politburo’s stand to go for the extreme step in case the Centre does not abandon the nuclear deal. There is acceptance in the party rank and file that a support for the government which signs the nuclear deal with the US will take away its only differentiating plank — “anti-US imperialism”. It’s an irony of sorts though that the same Left government in West Bengal has been faithfully pressing ahead with reforms.

The members from West Bengal are echoing the line taken by chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, who could not make it to the central committee meeting in view of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s visit to Kolkata. Mr Bhattacharjee, who had a dinner meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh last week, had told senior ministers of the Left Front on Wednesday that a change of guard at the Centre could hit the state’s industrialisation drive.

However, such concerns were not reflected by members from Kerala. In fact, there is a feeling that elections at this juncture may help them tide over the image deficit because of the murky factionalism in the state. With the campaign slogan “the Congress is a US agent” already on their mind, the Kerala Marxists are hoping to score over their rivals.

In the last Assembly election, the Marxists had used the anti-US theme in Kerala to the hilt. The party got impressive electoral dividends. With hardline leaders like Abdul Nassar Madani by its side, the CPM can be expected to carry out a high-voltage campaign against the Congress over New Delhi’s tilt towards the US.