On Bengal elections, Left's Yechury highlights CPI-M's dual battle with BJP & Mamata's TMC

Addressing media after attending the party state committee meeting, CPI(M)'s General Secretary Sitaram Yechury said on Monday that the prime objective of his party is to defeat BJP in the upcoming West Bengal polls. He also pointed out that the CPI(M) which once ruled the state, is banking on the strong anti-incumbency sentiment prevailing against Mamata Banerjee's government. He said that CPI(M) would not go closer to TMC in their pursuit of keeping BJP away as this would alienate people from the Left party. In the upcoming elections, left parties including CPI(M) are in alliance with Congress. Yechury also said that people remember the time when it had an alliance with the saffron party and its leaders served as ministers in the BJP- led NDA coalition.

Yechury said that apart from Congress, Marxists will also have an understanding with non-Left allies like NCP and RJD in Bengal elections, adding that preliminary discussions have taken place with the Congrees and seat adjustment process is on. He said, "The anti-incumbency sentiment against the TMC government runs so deep and so large that any unity of all the anti-BJP forces will only help the BJP more. It will be counter-productive. People have great anger against the TMC. Aligning with Trinamool will therefore only turn people against us and help the BJP." He said the BJP and the TMC are trying to turn the approaching elections in Bengal as bipolar event, but the forces opposed to them would "rupture" this. "Our objective is to defeat the BJP and isolate the TMC. The issue is whether lives of the people can be bettered after polls. On that issue, there is no solution from either the BJP or the TMC," he said.

Electoral standing of CPI(M) and Congress in Bengal

Mamata Banerjee had demolished the left bastion in the state in 2011 and since then she is on the chief ministerial chair. The CPI(M) and its allies' slide continues in the state politics and they failed to win even a single seat in Bengal in the 2019 general elections. The Congress managed two seats. The BJP has replaced the CPI(M) and the Congress as the principal opponent to Trinamool Congrerss in Bengal winning 18 out of total 42 Lok Sabha seats in the state, only four less than the TMC's tally of 22. Since then the saffron party is making all efforts to win the coming state polls and form its government in Bengal.

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TMC vs BJP in West Bengal

While the BJP has chalked out a massive plan for the upcoming West Bengal Assembly polls which includes Home Minister Amit Shah visiting the state every month till the elections, Trinamool has already begun its outreach programme highlighting the welfare schemes of the Mamata Banerjee government. The TMC has also roped in former JDU VP and polls strategist Prashant Kishor for Mamata's re-election while the BJP's campaign is being headed by senior leader Kailash Vijayvargiya, under the leadership of BJP chief JP Nadda. VIolence has already started in the state ahead of polls, with alleged TMC goons even attacking Nadda while he was on a two-day visit to the state. Earlier, Dilip Ghosh had also asked his BJP cadre to arm themselves with sticks and give it back to the Trinamool cadre if it comes to it.

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West Bengal assembly elections

West Bengal assembly with 294 seats will go to polls in April-May 2021, Trinamool holds 222 seats. BJP has made major inroads in the state in the Lok Sabha elections winning 18 seats and establishing itself as the major opposition force in the state. Recently TMC trumped BJP in all 3 bypolls but the BJP is using its booth-level strategy, has placed its top leaders including Amit Shah and JP Nadda in the state for winning the upcoming elections.

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