Left Front to kick off their campaign for next year's parliamentary polls in West Bengal

KOLKATA: A number of corruption issues including Saradha Group's ponzi scam will figure prominently in the opposition Left Front's campaign against Mamata Banerjee's government. The Front will kick-off it's campaign for next year's Lok Sabha elections by organising a rally at the Brigade Parada Grounds on February 9 when the opposition parties will highlight several corruption issues in which some key Trinamool Congress leaders are reportedly involved.

The decision to hold it's rally at the Brigade was taken during a meeting of the Front on Monday. Later speaking to newsmen the Front chairman Biman Bose said that financial irregularities at the Siliguri-Jalpaiguri Development Authority (SJDA) should be probed thoroughly and no one involved in this should be spared.

Interestingly, the ruling Trinamool Congress will also hold a rally at the Brigade on January 30. Chief minister Mamata Banerjee will be the key speaker at the rally. Even though Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee will be the key speaker at the Front's rally on February 9, the CPIM is planning to bring Prakash Karat and Sitaram yechuri at their rally.

The BJP will also hold a meeting at the Brigade with it's Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi as the chief speaker. But the party is yet to announce the date for it's rally. Meanwhile, BJP's national general secretary Varun Gandhi will hold a rally at Karandighi in North Dinajpur district on Tuesday, party sources said on Monday.

The opposition Left parties are very vocal against the ruling Trinamool Congress. They have already demanded a CBI investigation into the Saradha scam in which a number of ruling party leaders are reportedly involved. Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha MP from the state, Kunal Ghosh is now in police custody for his alleged link with the owner of the tainted Saradha group, Sudipto Sen. Ghosh, before his arrest, had hinted that a number of key Trinamool leaders had taken favour directly from Sen.

Using Ghosh's allegations as a tool, the opposition CPIM has demanded a CBI investigation into the multi-crore scam. CPIM leaders had already met the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and urged him to go for a CBI investigation into the Saradha scam. Now, the opposition Front has decided to make the scam a major issue during their campaign against Mamata Banerjee for next year's parliamentary elections.