CPI-M leadership to decide whether to go with Cong in Bengal:

The top leadership of CPI-M will decide at an appropriate time whether to forge an alliance with Congress in the upcoming West Bengal assembly elections, Politburo member Brinda Karat today said.
"Elections are due in five states and alliances cannot be state-specific," she said.
"The CPI(M) Politburo and central committee would take a final call on the issue of alliance in five states going to polls at an appropriate time," she said.
Virtually kicking off the party's poll campaign in West Bengal, senior CPI(M) leader Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee had on Saturday suggested that Congress should join hands with Left Front to oust the ruling Trinamool Congress.

Karat, who reached here in the morning to attend a seminar on Jharia Mines Fire Displaced, also criticised West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and her party for "mishandling" the recent Malda flare-up.
Banerjee, BJP and RSS are destroying the communal harmony established by CPI(M) in Bengal for political gains, she alleged.

The CPI(M) leader held the BJP government responsible for the impasse on the GST Bill in Parliament. "It is the responsibility of the government to run Parliament keeping opposition in confidence," she said.
She also demanded that the Prime Minister should clear his stand on the Ram temple issue being raised by "several BJP leaders".

"The PM's silence on the issue confirms his tacit support to them," she alleged.