Amid speculation about the future of their alliance in West Bengal after the humiliating assembly poll defeat, the Left Front and the Congress said on Monday their tie-up will continue. As a result, aspiration among the party leaders has gradually been increasing that resulted derailment in all aspects”, he said.Referring West Bengal, Mr Bhattacharjee said, “We forget what we had promised before the election – an alternative policy. More so as the setback this time through the alliance with the Congress has been sufficient to make the Left a non- player in the 2019 general elections in West Bengal. “LDF has registered a big victory in Kerala because the people have endorsed a platform for a corruption-free government. Never ever the historic significance of how the Left Front was established in the state was stated”, Panda said.
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“But at the same time, we feel just because the elections are over, the need for the arrangement (with the Congress) has not ended”. She can now be the person who revives Bengal’s economy and propels the state to the top of economic and human development rankings. On the other side, as a senior CPI (M) leader also agreed, the Left and the jote did not bring to the table any kind of vision for Bengal, detailed or otherwise.
“We have sent a few names to the central leadership”, he said.
Accepting the people’s verdict of returning J Jayayalalithaa’s AIADMK to power in Tamil Nadu, the two Left parties alleged that money power played a crucial role in the southern states to ensure the victory for AIADMK.
Facing tough questions on the massive defeat in West Bengal, Yechury said that they hoped to do better – and therefore the results have come across as a setback.
Riding on the Modi wave, that year the BJP won two Lok Sabha seats, led in 24 Assembly constituencies, and secured 17 per cent of votes. Besides the fact that many, not ideologically moored in the Left, joined the “establishment” and contributed to further distancing the government from the people.
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A day after the Trinamool stormed back to power with 211 seats in the 294-member assembly, the victorious members congregated at Banerjee’s residence at city’s Kalighat where she was elected as the leader of the party. “We could not reach out to the people due to this”, he claimed. He, however, added that the vote share of CPI (M) has remained more or less the same in the state for the party as compared to the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.
