The sesquicentinnial of Mahatma Gandhi has brought together Congress and Left Front on the same platform in West Bengal in their fight against the "communal" BJP and the "undemocratic" TMC.
To commemorate the150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, the Congress has organized an art exhibition named 'Bapu in Bengal', where several pictures and articles on the Father of the Nation during his visit to Bengal are displayed.
The CPI(M)-led Left Front was also invited at the art exhibition and senior Left parties' leaders, including LF chairman Biman Bose, CPI(M) state secretary Surya Kanta Mishra and Forward Bloc state secretary Naren Chatterjee were present at it.
Later state Congress president Somen Mitra held an hour-long closed door meeting with the Left leaders in which the political situation in Bengal and the need for both the sides to come together to fight the rise of BJP in the state was stressded.
"We have been discussing this for a long time that Congress and the Left need to come together to fight against the communal BJP and TMC. We think it is high time that both the parties do so," Mitra said.
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Left Front leaders echoed his views and accused the ruling TMC and BJP of dividing the masses on religious lines.
Earlier this month, the Congress and the Left had decided to launch joint movements across the state after the Durga Puja festival.
In August Congress national president Sonia Gandhi had approved the Congress-Left Front alliance in West Bengal for the upcoming bypoll in three three assembly seats in the state.
The move is seen as an effort to combat BJP, which is pushing both the parties out of the opposition space in West Bengal and is positioning itself as the sole challenger to the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress.
The 2019 Lok Sabha polls saw a saffron surge in West Bengal. While BJP won 18 Lok Sabha seats against Trinamools 22, Congress could win just two and the Left ended up with a zero.
The Congress and Left Front failed to clinch an alliance in the Lok Sabha polls after both the parties could not reach a seat sharing deal.
West Bengal BJP president Dilip Ghosh has claimed that the people of West Bengal have rejected the CPI(M) and the Congress and have chosen the saffron party as the only alternative to end the TMC "misrule" in Bengal".
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