Left-Cong alliance possible at national level: CPI

With Congress and the Left Front fighting together against the Trinamool Congress in Bengal, CPI national secretary Atul Kumar Anjaan today said there is a possibility that the alliance can be replicated at the national level in the coming days.
Speaking at a news channel's interactive session centring the ongoing Assembly polls in West Bengal, Anjaan said the Left shall be "happy" to be a part of the grand alliance if Congress reverts to the welfare policies of Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi.
"If Congress reverts to the welfare policies of Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi and raises the voice of the millions of the toiling masses, we shall be happy to be part of a grand alliance for the people," a press statement issued by the channel quoted the CPI leader as saying.

Anjaan, however, maintained that the Left's poll tie-up with Congress in Bengal was a "need based alliance to rescue the state from the dire situation it has been pushed into by Trinamool".
Congress MP Pradip Bhattacharya, who too participated in the session, said it was good that the Left was changing their stance on many issues for the larger good of Bengal in particular and India as a whole.
Speaking at another session of the programme, TMC national spokesperson Derek O'Brien termed the Congress- CPI(M) alliance as "T-Shirt and Pajama" alliance and expressed his confidence that Mamata Banerjee will return as the chief minister of Bengal with a "comfortable" majority.

Asked if the Left-Congress alliance would continue in the

days to come, Salim said, "I can't comment on it."
The Left allies went hammer and tongs against the CPI(M) and said it should learn lessons and stop ignoring its time-tested allies.
"This is what you get when you ignore your age-old allies for a foe-turned-friend of three months. This joint press conference of the Congress vice-president and the TMC chief is a tight slap on the face of the CPI(M) and it should take lessons from it," RSP state secretary Kshiti Goswami said.
The alliance between the Left Front and the Congress had failed to create much of an impact in this year's Assembly polls with the TMC winning a whopping 211 seats, while the alliance managed to bag 76.