News Analysis India

Tag: Brigade rally

  • ‘People of Bengal will teach Mamata a lesson’: Left, Congress, ISF thunder at Kolkata rally

    By PTI
    KOLKATA: The Indian Secular Front (ISF), led by Abbas Siddiqui, on Sunday vowed to defeat the TMC and BJP in the upcoming assembly elections, asserting that people of the state would teach Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee “a lesson for her arrogance”.

    Proclaiming support for the Left Front and its allies in the state, Siddiqui said Bengal will get the better of the BJP and “its B-team Mamata Banerjee” in the polls.

    “Mamata and her TMC has destroyed democracy and unleashed anarchy. They will pay for it in the elections,” Siddiqui said, addressing a mega rally at the Brigade Parade Grounds here.

    The ISF has sealed a seat-sharing agreement with the Left Front for the assembly elections, while talks with Congress are underway.

    Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury reiterated that the grand alliance of the Left- Congress and other secular forces will defeat both the TMC and the BJP in the West Bengal assembly elections.

     Chowdhury said the massive gathering proves that the upcoming elections will not be a two-cornered contest. He said the BJP and the ruling TMC desire that apart from these two parties, there should not exist any other political force in the state, which come in their path.

    “In future, there will not be any BJP or TMC, only the grand alliance will remain,” he asserted.

    The Election Commission of India had on Friday announced eight-phase polls in West Bengal, which will commence on March 27 and conclude on April 29.

  • Former Bengal CM Buddhadeb Bhattacharya not to attend Brigade rally due to ill health

    By PTI
    KOLKATA: Former West Bengal chief minister and CPM veteran Buddhadeb Bhattacharya will not be attending the party’s mega rally at the Brigade Parade Ground on Sunday owing to ill health, sources said.

    The Left-Congress-ISF alliance will kick-off its campaign for the upcoming assembly elections in West Bengal at the Brigade Parade Ground, an iconic political platform in the city with a capacity to accomodate lakhs of people.

    Bhattacharya, 76, expressed anguish at not being able to attend the public meeting.

    “My comrades are fighting on the ground, and I have to stay back at home as per the advice of doctors. It is unthinkable that such a massive rally is being held at the Brigade Parade Ground, and I cannot attend it. I wish the rally a grand success,” he said in a statement.

    According to party sources, Bhattacharya is likely to send a written message for the rally.

    During the last such event at the same venue in 2019, Bhattacharya stayed for a brief period but could not address the gathering due to poor health.

    CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury, state Congress president Adhir Chowdhury and ISF’s Abbas Siddiqui will be the main speakers at Sundays rally.

    Chattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel and RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav will also be present, besides state leaders of the Congress and the Left parties.

    The RJD is a part of the Left-Congress alliance in West Bengal.

    For the first time, once-bitter rivals Congress and the Left Front would be holding a joint rally in Kolkata.