To shed 'pro-CPM' image, Cong to take on Buddha

KOLKATA: Congress has realised that it urgently needs to shed it's image as a pro-CPM political force, and present itself as a formidable alternative to the left, before the 2011 West Bengal assembly elections.

The party now plans to use the monsoon session of the assembly as a platform to renew its tirade against CPM, especially against chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee. “We don't get replies from the chief minister who runs the home department. Law and order problem in the state is the most crucial issue right now. But whenever we raise any question on the subject, we hardly receive any reply from the chief minister. He comes to the assembly every Thursday when the House remains in session. From now we will raise questions every Thursday to get replies from the chief minister," CLP leader Manas Bhunia told ET on Wednesday.

Mr Bhunia also said that they have already identified certain serious law and order issues which they will raise during the assembly session beginning Friday and seek replies from the chief minister . It is the principal opposition party, Trinamool Congress, which has branded Congress as the "CPM's B team" and has accused the party of helping the ruling Marxists on many critical issues. Trinamool Congress had once boycotted all government functions addressed by the chief minister.

Even within the assembly, they had boycotted the chief minister on several occasions. Compared to the Trinamool Congress, Congress' criticism of Mr Bhattacharjee inside the assembly used to be mellowed . Riding on the huge anti-CPM sentiment and public opinion, Congress is now trying hard to brand itself as another hard-core anti-Marxist force in the state before 2011 assembly elections.