CPI(M) holds meeting with defiant FB
West Bengal's ruling Left Front major CPI(M) on Tuesday began the process of convincing one of its partners, Forward Bloc, about the need for Reliance's ambitious agri-retail project in West Bengal but a defiant FB said it continued to oppose the ...
By PTI |
KOLKATA: West Bengal's ruling Left Front major CPI(M) on Tuesday began the process of convincing one of its partners, Forward Bloc, about the need for Reliance's ambitious agri-retail project in West Bengal but a defiant FB said it continued to oppose the project.
Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacherjee and Left Front Chairman Biman Bose held a meeting with FB secretary Ashoke Ghosh and his party colleague Naren Chatterjee who is the chairman of the state marketing board and has been strongly opposing Reliance project in the state.
While the leaders of the two parties refused to comment on what transpired during their one-hour talk, the meeting is understood to have been an effort by the CPI(M) to convince FB on the benefits the state would get from the Reliance project.
Asked whether his party would change its stand on the issue following the meeting, the FB secretary refused to comment but asked newspersons to a look at a leaflet released during the day by the party against the Reliance project.
The FB leaflet asked party cadres, small traders, farmers and others involved in retail business to build a resistance against the entry of big Indian and foreign companies in the agri-retail business.
FB, which controls the agriculture department of the state, has been refusing to issue licence to Reliance to start its agri-retail shops on the ground that it would harm the interest of farmers and small traders.
Veteran marxist leader Jyoti Basu had also earlier expressed opposition to the Reliance project but later supported Reliance's move to acquire a municipal market for redevelopment.
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