Under pressure from its central committee, Bengal CPM not to attend Congress rally on Saturday

KOLKATA: Succumbing to the pressure from its central committee and minor Left Front partners, Bengal CPI(M) on Friday decided not to attend the Congress rally to be organised in the city the next day to oppose Mamata Banerjee government's failure to check price rise and attacks on opposition party workers.

The Congress had last week announced that it would hold the rally on June 25 and the state Congress president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury had invited his counterpart in Bengal CPM, Surjya Kanta Mishra, to attend the same.

Initially, Mishra told the media before attending the four-day CPM politburo and central committee meetings in Delhi that he would attend the rally.

But the central leadership categorically disapproved of the stand taken by the West Bengal unit to forge alliance with the Congress.

The central committee had also asked Bengal CPM to rectify its stand on the issue of continuing alliance with the Congress till 2019 when next parliamentary elections are due.

Left Front partners such as the CPI, RSP and Forward Bloc had made it clear during a recent meeting of the Front that they would not attend the Congress rally. They had also insisted that the CPM does not attend the rally either.

On Thursday, CPM legislative party leader Sujan Chakraborty held a meeting with Left Front MLAs at the state Assembly and all the Front MLAs conveyed decisions taken by their parties not to attend the Congress rally.

Following continuous pressure from with the Front and their central leadership to discontinue their alliance with the CPM, the Marxists on Friday announced that they would not attend the rally.