CPI blames CPI(M)for polls debacle ignoring warnings of allies

The CPI today said that if the warnings by partners that the Left Front had lost connect and was losing ground were not ignored by major partner CPI(M), the rout in the recent assembly elections could have been averted.

"Multi-crop land acquisition in the name of the Tata Motors factory, unsigned notification on acquisition of land at Nandigram and death of 14 persons there in police firing, were among the issues that distanced the Front from the masses," CPI state secretary Manju Kumar Majumder told a press conference.

"This debacle was not the result of a day's lapse. There was gradual resentment among the masses. Our party projected the diversion, flaws, weaknesses and loss of ground before the CPI(M), which was not given any importance," Majumdar said.

He said that had action been taken on these points, the decimation in the assembly elections could have been avoided.

Despite decisions taken by the four major Left front partners CPI(M), CPI, Forward Bloc and RSP, he said, the Left Front played an active role in the setting up of SEZs, while foreign capital was invited 'indiscriminately' to the state, he said.

"One after another wrong decisions by the government armed the opposition. Small, medium and marginal farmers, for whom there was no enactment of welfare laws, panicked."

The process of land reforms came to a halt after a certain point and a neo-rich class developed, which became the controller of rural economy, Majumder said.