CPI(M) to launch protests against TMC, BJP in Bengal: Yechury

In a bid to revive its lost strength ahead of next year's assembly polls in West Bengal, CPI(M) today said it would launch a major campaign against growing communal intolerance and "attacks on democracy" by the Trinamool Congress in the state, accusing it of "match-fixing" with the BJP.

While CPI(M) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury accused TMC of "match-fixing" with the BJP in Parliament, his party colleague Surjya Kanta Mishra said "what we have seen in 18 months of BJP rule at the Centre, the same underhand dealing has been witnessed during the four-and-a-half years of TMC rule in Bengal, especially on economic policies."

The Left parties would launch an intensive nationwide campaign "against growing communal intolerance and hatred being spearheaded by RSS-BJP across the country" in the first week of December, Yechury told reporters here.

He said the campaign in West Bengal would include public meetings and demonstrations and culminate in a mass rally in Kolkata on December 27, when the CPI(M) would start a five-day organisational plenum to find ways to strengthen itself.

"The Organisational Plenum will be held from December 27 to 31 at Kolkata. It will be attended by 436 delegates," Yechury, also accompanied by his Politburo colleagues from the state -- Biman Basu and Mohd Salim, said.

The plenum would debate a report on the party organisation, its weaknesses and how to revive it, and adopt a detailed resolution on the matter which would guide CPI(M)'s activities in the coming days, he said.

In West Bengal, 113 Left mass organisations have joined hands to form the Bengal Platform of Mass Organisations which would conduct 'jathas' or marches across the state till November 22.

During the course of this programme, over 11,300 mass meetings will be held in urban and rural Bengal "as part of the struggle launched by the Left parties on a 15-point demand charter, the CPI(M) leader said.

"The main thrust of this programme is to resist the ongoing attacks on democracy by the Trinamool Congress and its state government through the spread of violence, intimidation and terror," Yechury said.

"Issues of safeguarding and strengthening secularism and resisting the continuous economic burdens being imposed on the people will form the three major issues around which these programmes will be conducted," he leader said.