Left Front under severe strain after Singur, Nandigram and Dinhata

Kolkata: After ruling West Bengal for three decades as a cohesive unit, the CPI(M)-led ruling Left Front's unity is now under a severe strain like never before.

"The future of the Left Front is at stake today because of the events like Singur, Nandigram and the Dinhata killings," Ashok Ghosh, an octogenarian Left leader and state secretary of Forward Bloc, a LF constituent, told PTI.

"The CPI(M) has gone out of its mind in its endeavour to placate big business for which it sacrificed the interests of the poor. Already Singur, Nandigram and Dinhata have endangered the survival of the Left Front," he said.

"We will not allow Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacherjee to turn West Bengal into a second Singapore with monopoly capital of the country and outside," he said.

The resentment of the junior partners -- Forward Bloc, RSP and CPI, particularly by the first two, against 'Big Brother' CPI(M) was finally taken to the people when FB, organised a near total bandh on February six in protest against police firing at Dinhata killing five of its workers a day earlier.

This was the first death of Front supporters in police firing in 30 years of Left rule with the party alleging that it was pre-planned and done at the behest of the CPI(M).

The three partners have together demanded a judicial probe and wanted the officers responsible for the firing to be punished.

The FB, the second largest constituent in the coalition governing the state since 1977, has already decided to fight on its own the panchayat polls due in May this year.