BJP, Sangh Parivar polarising communities in Bengal: CPI-M

Charging the BJP and the Sangh parivar with bringing about communal polarisation in West Bengal, the CPI-M Thursday termed as "baseless" claims by a section of the media that the Left Front was being replaced by the BJP as the principal opposition.

"With the (Narendra) Modi-led government coming to power at the Centre, the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Sangh parivar are trying to bring about a communal polarisation between Hindus and Muslims in our state. We don't want that," said Communist Party of India-Marxist politburo member and former chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee.

"We won't allow the strong soil of secularism in our state to become the quicksand of communalism," he said addressing an event celebrating the 50th anniversary of the seventh party Congress of the undivided CPI, which led to the emergence of the CPI-M.

"There is a propaganda in a section of the media that the BJP is replacing the Left as the principal opposition party. This is completely baseless," he said.

Coming down heavily on the Trinamool Congress government, CPI-M general secretary Prakash Karat dubbed it "corrupt, criminalised and viciously anti-democratic".

Blaming the Trinamool for the BJP managing to make inroads in the state, Karat said, "The Trinamool's brand of politics has set the stage for the BJP's entry".