Left Front and Congress go separate ways in West Bengal Assembly

Kolkata: Apparently stung by TMC MLA Tapas Roy’s attack on the Left Front-Congress alliance in West Bengal, both the parties walked out of the House separately in protest against Roy’s words. [caption id=“attachment_2812814” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. PTI[/caption] While the Left Front MLAs walked out of the Assembly for the day, the Congress remained outside for a brief spell. The failure of the parties to put up a united show was in stark contrast to the joint press conference held by the Left and the Congress last week to attack the ruling TMC. The trigger for the walkouts was TMC MLA Tapas Roy’s stinging attack against the Left Front-Congress alliance in the House. He said that both the parties had lost their political credibility as they compromised with their ideology while forming the alliance just to retain seats. “Both the parties have lost their credibility and compromised with their ideology just to win a few seats and become MLAs. The people have given you a reply,” Roy said. While Left legislative party leader Sujan Chakraborty-led party MLAs walked out of the House to protest against Roy’s choice of words, Congress MLAs, led by Chief Whip Manoj Chakraborty, trooped out to protest against Roy’s reference to state Congress president Adhir Chowdhury. “We have staged a walkout against the language of threat, lies and malicious words used against us. We will ask the Speaker to expunge those words,” Chakraborty said. On being Asked if the CPI-M would continue floor coordination in the Assembly with the Congress in view of the Central Committee’s disapproval of the alliance and asking the Bengal cadre to rectify the political line, Chakraborty said, “The floor coordination and issue-based fight will continue.” On the other hand, Leader of Opposition and senior Congress leader Abdul Mannan said, “We both have walked out at the same time but on different issues. We later attended the House proceedings as two MLAs were scheduled to speak.”