Trinamool Congress being wooed by BJP: Prakash Karat

New Delhi: With political manoeuvrings picking up pace for next year's Lok Sabha elections, the CPI(M) on Sunday said the Trinamool Congress was being wooed by the Bharatiya Janata Party. "The Trinamool Congress has a record of alliance with both the BJP and the Congress. At present, the BJP is wooing the TMC," CPI(M) General Secretary Prakash Karat said. He was asked about the possibility of Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee striking an alliance with the Congress or the BJP ahead of or after the general elections.

Karat also asserted that the priority of his party, which was routed by the Trinamool Congress after a 34-year-rule in West Bengal, "is to regain the support lost and to mobilise all sections of the working people who are suffering under the Trinamool government's misrule". To questions on the Delhi protests by Left supporters against Banerjee and her cabinet colleague Amit Mitra, he said, "There was no attack whatsoever on Mamata Banerjee. But there was a melee and jostling of the Finance Minister (Mitra), which we have disapproved of and condemned."

Terming the protest against the custodial death of SFI leader Sudipta Gupta in Kolkata as "legitimate", he said that using the Delhi incident as a pretext, "there have been systematic and widespread attacks on CPI(M) and Left parties offices, cadres and activists. Over a thousand offices have been damaged or destroyed. They (TMC) did not spare the Presidency University too."

"Trinamool Congress is bent upon suppressing the opposition. Even when Left Front was in office, attacks were taking place on the peasants and other sections of the working people by vested interests. It is class violence directed against the Left base and TMC is the sole generator of the present violence," Karat said. Noting that the threat posed by TMC to democratic rights and democracy in general was "growing", he said clashes were taking place between factions of TMC too. "All this is affecting Bengal where there is hardly any worthwhile development to speak about," the top CPI(M) leader said.

To questions on coming panchayat polls in West Bengal, Karat accused the Mamata Banerjee government of trying to hold these elections "on its terms". "It plans to intimidate and suppress Left Front to prevent it from participating in the elections in a fair manner. The deadlock over the holding of panchayat elections stems from TMC government's refusal to accept the reasonable proposals of the state election commission," he said, adding the Left wanted these elections to be held in time.

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