BJP and TMC like offering voters two kinds of poison: Brinda Karat

"Whatever the brand, poison kills," says CPI(M) Politbureau member Brinda Karat, warning people in West Bengal against voting for either the BJP or the state's ruling TMC.

With the saffron party making inroads into the state and the fear that Left votes are getting transferred to it enmasse, Karat tried to explain the vacuum created by the Left in a state it ruled for 34 years.

"You can't think that you can taste this poison or that. The TMC's policies have led to great discontent among the people of Bengal against the party. The BJP is using its central-state powers and huge money to claim that it's the only alternative here. It is like offering people two choices of poison - BJP and TMC," Karat told PTI in a recent interview.

Sitting in the CPI(M) office in Belpahari, once a Maoist stronghold, around 200 km from Kolkata, she warned the electorate to not vote for either the Trinamool Congress or the Bharatiya Janata Party and said, "Whatever the brand, poison kills."
"The BJP has used its agencies against Lalu, against DMK, Chandrababu Naidu. Which opposition party has been left out except Mamata? Why for five years on Sharada, Narada where there is so much evidence, were they so soft? Who will answer these questions?"