FPJ VIEW
Albeit in the Centre, but CPM has realised the importance and significance of the Trinamool after the party’s stupendous victory in the recent assembly election. The CPM has realised how their chances got botched in the election by staying away from an alliance with the Trinamool and in the June 21 meet, the CPI(M) West Bengal State Committee members were at loggerheads while discussing the party’s disastrous performance. CPM failed to send a single representative to the House of 294 lawmakers, most leaders blamed it on the decision to join hands with a 1-month-old outfit Indian Secular Force. The CPI(M) made it clear it will not take any responsibility if the alliance with Congress and Indian Secular Front breaks. Also, the Left Front partner Forward Block said the CPI(M) decided they should decrease their dependency on their allies (Congress and ISF).
New Delhi
Ahead of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in Delhi next week to unite the opposition parties to take on PM Modi-led BJP, the Communist Party of India (Marxists) has decided to go for a tango with her Trinamool Congress in the national politics. Indication of the change in the CPI(M)'s stand to have no truck with the Trinamool Congress has come from its secretary Suryakant Mishra, who said: "We have no problem with any party in the national level struggle against the BJP."
He said the party is adopting the Kerala model, in which the CPI(M) fights fiercely with the Congress only in Kerala while having no issue in the electoral alliance with the Congress in other states. He cited how the CPI(M) had recently fought elections in an alliance with the Congress in West Bengal, Assam and other states while remaining steadfast against it in Kerala.
Another CPI(M) leader said the party has also reached the Congress to persuade it to follow this principle to unite the opposition parties as a national alternative by allowing in it the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal even while fighting against it in Delhi and Punjab, as also the Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party, without any truck with them in Uttar Pradesh. It has suggested the same formula may be adopted in roping in the regional satraps like the chief ministers in Telangana and Andhra.
Mamata is arriving in Delhi for meetings with President Ramnath Kovind and Prime Minister Modi to discuss the West Bengal issues, but those listed by her for meetings with the opposition leaders include Sonia Gandhi, Sharad Pawar, Kejriwal, Akhilesh Yadav and the leaders of the DMK, TDP and YSR Congress.
Bypoll: CEO asks DEO to start first-level EVM checking
Kolkata
Chief Electoral Officer Aariz Aftab on Saturday had written a letter to District Election Officers (DEO) and has asked them to conduct a first level checking of all the EVM and VVPAT machines. In a letter to five district election officers including Kolkata, North and South 24 Parganas, Nadia and Cooch Behar Aftab asked that first-level checking should be conducted at the earliest and by maintaining pandemic protocol. According to West Bengal Election Commission sources, the checking will commence on August 3 and will be completed by August 6. “Though the dates of the bypolls are yet to be decided by the Commission, the first level checking is the first step towards the polls. Total 62 engineers are commissioned to check 3414 EVM and equal number of VVPATs,” said the sources. —FPJ Correspondent
