Kolkata: The Communist Party of India CPI(M) is ready to ally with Trinamool Congress nationwide but not in West Bengal or Tripura, CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury said on Friday, reports The Indian Express.
Yechury's statement comes out after Left Front chairperson Biman Bose commented recently that the Left was ready to work with any party except BJP.
Yechury told reporters that in 2004, 61 Left MPs were in Parliament, 51 of them defeated Congress candidates in elections and supported the Congress-led union government. Such national alliance is not new in politics, and the equation of state politics defer from Union politics. TMC and CPI(M) share the anti-BJP platform as before, he said. He added that he wrote a resolution in their last meeting, and Mamata Banerjee, TMC head, had signed it.
In the case of Tripura, Yechury said, the TMC has only entered the state while his party was fighting the BJP there for years. TMC is realising that BJP is a fascist force after some of their leaders have joined BJP there. He told reporters that what TMC plan to do here is to be seen.
The latest landslide victory in the Bengal Assembly election gave TMC firm ground to expand its role in national politics. They are using the same to re-establish and strengthen their foot in Tripura.
However, Yechury said that his party would attend an Opposition meeting, scheduled on August 20, called by Congress president Sonia Gandhi. He said that fourteen parties are fighting against the BJP at the national level, and it will continue within and outside the Parliament. More parties are welcome to join the cause, he added.
Regarding the Pegasus surveillance, Yechury said that the alleged snooping is an attack on individual freedom and democracy. The government is telling outright lies, he said. He also criticised the "yatra" of 20,000 km through 22 states by newly appointed union ministers, scheduled on August 16. He said that the Yatra, which will hold more than 1,300 public meetings, is basically an invitation to the third wave of the pandemic.
Nationwide protests are planned in September on major issues, to be held along with other secular parties, since the country is edging towards fascism and Hindutva.