CPM's Kolkata rally to 'highlight failures' of Mamata Banerjee's government

KOLKATA: While Mamata Banerjee will be busy organising a protest rally against the UPA government in New Delhi, CPM will hold a massive rally in Kolkata, to 'highlight failures' of her government on issues like maintaining law and order, on the same day.

CPM central committee member Goutam Deb told ET on Tuesday that he expected more than 3 lakh people to attend the gathering. Former chief minister BuddhadebBhattacharjee will address the crowd. "Even though CPM's North 24-Parganas district unit is organising the rally, we have invited all Left Front leaders to address the gathering," Deb said.

CPM's rally comes at a time when Congress plans to claim the status of the main opposition in the state assembly. It has 42 MLAs, against 38 of CPM. Once Congress is given the status by the assembly Speaker, the Leader of the Opposition's post will go to the Congress legislative party leader. This would be a setback for CPM, which lost power after a 34-year record stint at Writers' building, just last year.

CPM is expected to lambast the Trinamool government during the rally. It had originally planned to hold the rally at the same venue where MamataBanerjee addressed a Trinamool Congress gathering on July 21. "We wanted to show the chief minister that CPM has its mass base and the party's North 24-Parganas unit is capable of organising a much larger and bigger gathering than the one organised by Trinamool on July 21. But MamataBanerjee's government did not grant us permission to hold our rally at the same venue. We will be holding our rally at the nearby RR Avenue and I can assure you that more than 3.25 lakh will attend it. Mamata is afraid of our organisational strength, which is slowly gaining lost ground," Deb claimed.

CPM's criticism of the state government would be blunted by Banerjee's attack on the UPA government. Earlier, it was CPM that took the lead in organising such movements against the Congress-led government. But now Banerjee has hijacked this platform. To overcome the crisis, CPM plans to launch a scathing attack against the Congress-led central government too. Many in CPM feel that the people may not take too kindly to the party's attack on Banerjee as she has made a 'sacrifice' by quitting the UPA government on the issues of diesel price hike. But CPM has no alternative than to go ahead with rallies.