CPI-ML(L) turns down CPM’s plea for talks to achieve a bigger Left unity

KOLKATA: Naxalites have turned down CPM’s plea for talks to achieve a bigger Left unity to fight Trinamool Congress and BJP.

A few days after the poll results were announced on May 19, CPM polit bureau member and Left Front chairman Biman Bose had called up a senior Naxalite leader and sought to hold talks with them to strengthen the Left unity in Bengal. But the Naxalite leader had urged Bose to snap their ties with the Congress before initiating talks.

“A few days after the poll results were announced, Biman Bose had called me up and sought to discuss certain political issues. I have urged him to snap their ties with the Congress to enable us to join talks with the CPM,” Partha Ghosh, state secretary of the Naxalite faction, CPIML (Liberation) told ET on Thursday.

Before six-phase Bengal elections, several Left parties had come together to fight BJP and Trinamool Congress. CPI-ML (Liberation) was one of the few Naxalite factions which held several movements along with the CPM and Left Front to mount pressure on Mamata government in the state and to strengthen struggle against BJP at the Centre. But widening of Left unity and struggle in the state had suffered a jolt as the CPM had forged an electoral alliance with the Congress.

The CPI-ML (Liberation) and SUCI (Communist), another Left party, had tied up for the assembly polls. The CPM, at that time, had ignored the Naxalite-SUCI combination, saying that both the parties had very little impact on Bengal politics. “CPIML (Liberation) had got 0.15% of the votes polled in 2011 Assembly elections while SUCI’s vote share was just 0.13%.

“These two parties were not able to bring any changes in the voting pattern of Bengal and Congress was as a much bigger force,” a senior CPM leader had said while justifying their alliance with the Congress.