West Bengal polls: CPM extends indirect offer of alliance to Congress

NEW DELHI: The CPM central leadership, caught in an inhouse debate on alliance or tactical understanding with the Congress in West Bengal, on Thursday come out with an amusing public stand to justify seeking out the Congress. The CPM officially said it “will seek the cooperation of all democratic forces” in West Bengal to fight Trinamool Congress, leaving none in doubt what it meant is seeking cooperation of Congress.

Interestingly, the CPM, while vowing to be part of alliances to defeat the Congress in Assam, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry is seeking out the West Bengal Congress in the name of “cooperation of democratic forces” against Trinamool as if Marxists’ traditional criticism of Congress Party does not include the Congress Party of West Bengal! Yet, the CPM also made the ritual of reiterating the “the political and tactical line adopted at the 21st party Congress” which theoretically meant not entering into a direct or indirect alliance with the Congress.

Since the “cooperation” CPM is now seeking with “all democratic forces” is electoral re-enforcement against Trinamool, the reiteration of “old electoral and tactical line” is seen as exercise aimed at gifting Kerala CPM and the likes of Prakash and Brinda Karat a facesaver talking points after West Bengal party-Sitaram Yechury combine deftly rolled back the former’s opposition to seeking out Congress. In the party circles, however, this inhouse debate on pro and anti-Congress line, is seen more as the by-product of ‘the leftover grudge’ of the Karat camp after its efforts to stall Yechury’s elevation was repulsed at the last party congress.

By seeking out the cooperation of ‘democratic forces”, the CPM has also, indirectly, admitted that in Bengal where an exclusive Left Front ruled for 34 continuous years till 2011, the badly battered CPM now needs parties outside the Left Front to face Mamata Banerjee.

However, Yechury tried to justify it by saying that after Mamata Banerjee formed the government in West Bengal, the main task is to restore democracy and reeled out the number of CPM works ‘killed’. For now, AICC is on wait and watch, enjoying both Mamata and Marxists courting it.