No question of alliance with Mamata, will fight BJP on our own: Left

Kolkata: The Left parties, including major partner CPI(M), on Saturday ruled out the possibility of joining hands with Trinamool Congress to counter BJP, a day after West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said that no one was “untouchable” in politics including the communists. [caption id=“attachment_1688469” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] The Left ruled out the possibility of an alliance with Mamata Banerjee. PTI[/caption] “There is no question of alliance with Trinamool or Mamata Banerjee. It is due to her policies and politics that BJP has made inroads in West Bengal. If we have to fight the communal BJP, we will fight it on our own,” CPI leader Gurudas Dasgupta told PTI in Kolkata. In an interview on Friday, the TMC chief, when asked whether she was willing to ally with the Left parties, had replied that talks could be held. “She was the first to bring BJP into the state when she joined hands with them in 1998,” said CPI(M) politburo member Surjya Kanta Mishra, who is also the Leader of the Opposition. Other Left partners such as Forward Bloc and RSP also rejected the idea of joining hands with the Trinamool. “It has to be seen who is making such statements before taking any step. It is Mamata Banerjee and Trinamool Congress whose terror tactics have rendered thousands of Left workers homeless. It is her appeasement policies that are helping in breeding communal forces in the state,” RSP state secretary Kshiti Goswami said. Forward Bloc general secretary Debabarata Biswas said, “There is no point in giving a reaction to a baseless statement. It is not at all possible to forge an alliance with Trinamool.” Banerjee while speaking on the JD(U)-RJD tieup in Bihar had said that if such a situation arose in West Bengal it could be thought over as none was untouchable. She had also spoken about her party’s tie-up with SUCI saying if anybody came forward, talks could be held as in a democracy no option should be closed. Asked whether she was ready to join hands with CPI-M, Banerjee had replied, “I did not say that. I only said if any proposal comes, we will discuss it in our party.” PTI