Dasmunshi Plans To Float New Mahajot In Bengal

West Bengal Congress leader and party's chief whip in the Lok Sabha Priya Ranjan Dasmunshi is seeking a new Mahajot in West Bengal that would consist of all forces opposed to the CPM and the BJP.

For this, Dasmunshi is floating a `Secular Democratic Forum' which is the initial step towards an eventual Secular Democratic Front consisting of all forces against the misrule of the CPM and the `communal' BJP. Dasmunshi is hopeful that ultimately, the Trinamool Congress would also have a rethink on its alliance with the BJP and would come over to join the forum.

"It is not a party-to-party front, it is a movement", Dasmunshi said, who was slated to brief Congress president Sonia Gandhi on his forum yesterday. Explaining the rationale behind floating the forum, Dasmunshi said it would provide a forum for all those secular forces in West Bengal who were opposed to the CPM. Such forces were finding no option but to even join hands with the BJP. His own party's working president A B A Ghani Khan Choudhury was bent upon joining hands with Mamata Banerjee irrespective of her alliance with the BJP in order to fight the misrule of the CPM.

 

"There is an ideological split (in the Congress). A section of leadership feels joining hands with the BJP to remove the CPM is no crime. The rest of the party feels even to strengthen the BJP in one Assembly segment with Congress vote will be a disaster not only in Bengal but in the rest of the country", Dasmunshi said, summing up the last one month's churning in his own party over the proposal of Mahajot with Trinamool Congress that is in alliance with the BJP.

The forum, he said, would not be a political front and, therefore, all secular minded intellectuals, artists, social activists, clubs, district Congress committees were being contacted to be actively associated. It is hoped that activists of Trinamool Congress would also join the forum.

"We should involve people cutting across party lines to defend the secular image of Bengal", Dasmunshi said. He hoped that at a given point of time, the Trinamool Congress would also reconsider its ties with the BJP.

And this would have to be sooner than later, Dasmunshi said referring to the Vishwa Hindu Parishad's announcement that it would recruit one lakh kar sevaks for Ram temple at Ayodhya by December 31.

Even Union home minister L K Advani's statement at Somnath that Ayodhya was still relevant, should alarm the secular minded elements in the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA).

The forum is planning a big convention in Calcutta in a month followed by similar conventions in the districts.