CPI, RSP, Forward Bloc oppose CPI(M)'s plan to continue alliance with Congress in West Bengal

KOLKATA: CPI, RSP and Forward Bloc have vehemently opposed CPI(M)'s plan to continue the alliance with the Congress till next parliamentary elections in 2019.

In a meeting of the Left Front on Friday, the three smaller parties expressed strong objection to the continuation of the alliance that failed to deliver the desired results in the recent state polls.

"We have categorically told CPI(M) leaders during today's Front meeting that they have to stop saying in public that the alliance with the Congress will continue till 2019 when the next parliamentary elections will take place. We were against such alliance earlier also when the CPI(M) was spearheading the idea of forging the alliance and now we are vehemently opposing the CPI(M)'s stand to continue the same," former CPI state secretary Manju Kumar Majumdar told ET.

Instead of continuing the alliance, the Left Front should be strengthened by organising mass movement and reaching out to other Left parties that are outside the grouping so as to widen the Left movement in Bengal, Majumdar said.

Leaders of CPI, RSP and Forward Bloc had been opposed to forging an alliance with the Congress in the first place. In the assembly polls, the Congress ended up gaining as it secured 44 seats and got the status of the main opposition party.

Nonetheless, CPI(M) is ready to continue the partnership with the Congress till the next Lok Sabha polls.