CPI(M) kicks off poll campaign in West Bengal

Kolkata: With assembly polls ensuing in West Bengal, the CPI(M) kicked off their election campaign with a huge rally at the Brigade parade ground on Sunday. The rally witnessed a plethora of the party stalwarts attending the programme.

Lambasting the Trinamool government in West Bengal, CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury gave the clarion call to oust the present government saying "Trinamool hatao Bangla bachao" (remove TMC and save West Bengal).

CMI(M) leaders including Prakash Karat, Brinda Karat, Surya Kanta Mishra, Buddhadeb Bhattacharya, Md Selim, Biman Bose, Sitaram Yechury attended the rally.

Former chief minister of the state Buddhadeb Bhattacharya called upon the party activists to get united and fight the ongoing atrocities across the state.

Notably, he made the call at a time when a horde of party cadres had migrated and expressed solidarity with the Trinamool Congress (TMC).

Without active and united stand TMC cannot be rooted out of the state, Bhattacharya cautioned.

Mentioning the numerous cases of suicides among farmers and labourers in the tea sector in the Darjeeling district, the former state supremo said that the administration had failed miserably to ensure basic needs of the people.

Coming down heavily on the Mamata-led government, Biman Bose alleged that most of the TMC ministers were involved in the Saradha ponzi scam which had crippled the economy of the state. He called for a sit-in programme on Jan 12, in front of the CGO complex and similar agitation programme on Jan 28 in all administrative offices across Bengal.

Bose also called for staging similar demonstrations on Jan 28 in every administrative office all over Bengal.

Brinda Karat, in her address, mentioned that there was clandestine entente between TMC and BJP, and said that both the political parties were misleading the people with their concocted differences.

"Bahar me Kusti andar me dosti" (they wrestle on the outside while internally they are friendly), Karat said.

Brinda Karat lamented that the despite the state having a lady as a chief minister, the condition of women had deteriorated.

"Where were Trinamool MPs when Akhlaq was butchered at Dadri or an innocent Dalit boy was set on fire in Haryana? it was shameful that no representative from the Trinamool Congress visited that place or raised these issues publicly because they were busy to cover up the Saradha Scam," she said.

Leader of the Opposition in the state, Surya Kanta Mishra, pledged of bringing in an industrial revolution in the state if the party is voted to power in the ensuing election.

"We are hopeful of making an industry in Singur if we come back to Power," Mishra said.

(Inputs by Arnab Mitra)