Sitaram Yechury to meet like-minded parties in Tamil Nadu, discuss strategy to form secular front for Lok Sabha polls

Coimbatore: CPI-M general secretary Sitaram Yechury will discuss the possibility of formation of a secular front in the State with like-minded parties during his two-day visit to Tamil Nadu from January 22, the party’s state secretary K Balakrishnan said Friday.

Yechury will visit Tirunelveli on Tuesday and participate in a function to unveil a statue of Lenin, Balakrishnan told reporters in Coimbatore.

The next day Yechury would address a rally organised by Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK), a Dravidian Tamil nationalist party, in Tiruchirapalli, Balakrishnan said.

Asked about the CPM participating in the opposition rally organised by West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee at Kolkata tomorrow, CPM politburo member G Ramakrishnan said the main aim of his party was to form a secular and alternative government at the Centre.

The party was evolving a strategy across India to defeat BJP, he said.

As far as West Bengal was concerned, the ruling Trinamool Congress was functioning in a “pseudo-fascist” manner and indulging in violence against workers of left parties, he alleged.

“The party is in the election arena opposing both the BJP and Trinamool Congress,” he said.

Ramakrishnan and Balakrishnan were here to unveil the portrait of late CPI leader Jeeva at the CPI-M’s district office.