Tag: Indian Secular Force

  • ‘Alliance with Congress to be blamed for poll rout’, feel CPM West Bengal leaders

    KOLKATA: The CPM West Bengal state committee members were at loggerheads during a two-day review meeting to discuss the party’s disastrous performance in the recent Assembly elections. As the party failed to send a single representative to the House of 294 lawmakers, most of the leaders blamed it on the decision to join hands with one-month-old outfit Indian Secular Force (ISF).  

    Many members also expressed their discontent for the party’s alliance with the Congress saying similar tie-up had caused damage to the party in 2016 polls. The Congress had pocketed 44 seats at that time while the Left parties could bag just 26 seats.

    In the recent election, the Left Front, Congress and ISF, the outfit floated by an influential Muslim cleric, formed an alliance to consolidate electorates who were against the ruling TMC and the rising BJP. Both the LF and Congress failed to bag a single seat while the ISF won only one out of 27 where it had contested.

    “Inclusion of ISF in the alliance was not a unanimous decision. It was Selim (politburo member Mohammad Selim) who had projected the ISF as a progressive force which, in reality, was not. Those who were in favour of joining hands with the new outfit wanted to arrest migration of minority votes to the TMC. The strategy was wrong and electorates did not accept it as CPM has always been vocal of secularism,” said a state committee member.

    The alliance also received a set-back as the ISF fielded candidates in some of the seats in Murshidabad against Congress. State Congress chief Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, who was against the inclusion of ISF, had his party did not share seats with the outfit. Incidently, many CPM state committee members had wanted the party to contest in the polls without joining hands with the ISF and Congress. 

  • ‘PM Modi never talks about Trinamool-mukt Bharat’: Rahul attacks Didi and BJP

    By Express News Service
    KOLKATA:  Debuting his campaign in Bengal on Wednesday, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi tore into TMC and BJP. Taking potshots at TMC chief Mamata Banerjee, he claimed the Congress has never compromised on its ideology to gain power but the state’s ruling party has a history of joining hands with the saffron camp. 

    “Has the Congress party ever compromised with the BJP? Has it ever allied with the BJP? No. But Mamataji has done so,” Rahul said, adding that for his party, the fight with the BJP is ideological, not just political. 

    “Their (BJP’s) ideology murdered our biggest leader Gandhiji. We will die but not back down against this ideology. But for Mamataji, it is just a political battle,” said Gandhi, while addressing a rally at Goalpokhar in North Dinajpur.

    He urged the electorates to vote for the Congress-Left Front-Indian Secular Front alliance as neither the BJP nor the TMC can be trusted.

    Referring to the TMC’s previous alliance with the BJP, the former Congress president said Prime Minister Narendra Modi often talked about a Congress-mukt Bharat but he never said TMC-mukt Bharat.

    “The TMC is fine for them (BJP),” he noted. 

    “Their (BJP’s) battle is with the Congress’s ideology. They know Rahul Gandhi will never back down. I am not scared of them. In fact, they are scared of Rahul Gandhi. This is a fight for the future of Bengal. To save Bengal, you have to stop BJP’s advent.”

    Hitting out at Mamata’s governance, Rahul alleged that it is the only state where the poor people have to pay ‘cut money’ to get jobs.

    Taking a jibe at the Khela Hobe (Game On) slogan coined by Mamata, he said: “You are talking about a game on the street. I am talking about a game (students’ politics) in university and college campuses which you will not allow,’’ said Rahul.

    Accusing the BJP of trying to divide Bengal, he said the saffron party wants to implement the same practice that they followed in Assam and Tamil Nadu.

    “I have come here not to give a political speech. I have come here to save Bengal’s future,’’ he said.