Congress pact in 2019 threat to Left's existence in Bengal: AIFB

Kolkata, May 30 (IANS) Accusing Left Front (LF) major CPI-M of compromising Left unity in West Bengal for the sake of a coalition with the Congress in recent elections, the All India Forward Bloc (AIFB) on Wednesday said such a tendency to neglect allies in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls would pose a serious question on the LF's existence and relevance.

Holding the CPIM-Congress understanding chiefly responsible for the Left's dismal performance in the recent state rural polls, the AIFB claimed the people have shown their strong disapproval towards any such coalition in the last two major elections.

"If the CPI-M leadership continues to remain indifferent to the strength of the fellow Left parties in the state and decides to join hands with the Congress in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the idea of left politics in the state would come under question and the LF would need to have a new definition...

"The existence and relevance of the LF in the state would come under threat," AIFB state General Secretary Naren Chatterjee told reporters here.

"The last state Assembly polls in 2016 and the recently concluded state rural polls have clearly proved that the Congress votes do not shift to Left parties, but the Congress itself has managed to perform better than us in both the elections with the help of the LF vote bank."

Referring to the CPI-M's performance in the state Panchayat elections earlier this month, Chatterjee said the Congress has won three Zilla Parishad seats in Purulia district with the help of the CPI-M's vote bank while the Marxists drew a blank.

He said the party could have captured all three seats while the Forward Bloc would have won another two in the district had there been an alliance between the two Left parties.

The senior AIFB leader said the ground reality in West Bengal showed that Left democratic unity was necessary in the state.

"The CPI-M has to decide what is more important, is it the existence of the Left Front or their alliance with the Congress."

However, he clarified that that his party's objection did not stem from its ideological differences with the Congress.

"It isn't just about ideological differences. The Left Front has a political existence in Bengal since 1977 and there is an internal calculation regarding the seat sharing among the left allies. But the calculation has been thrown into jeopardy in the last two elections and the priority has constantly shifted towards Congress.

"Just keeping a front for the sake of holding meetings and walking hand in hand in the rallies would not be sufficient to strengthen Left unity. The unity must be equally promoted in constitutional democracy as well as in election battles. It is equally necessary in the city as well as in rural Bengal," the Left leader added.