Bengal alliance a blunder, said Tripura CPI(M)

FROM A CORRESPONDENT

Agartala, May 24: The alliance between the Congress and the CPI(M) in West Bengal has almost demolished the former in Tripura and now started showing repercussion in the other as the state secretary of CPI(M) Bijon Dhar described the alliance as the biggest blunder. “The party has made mistakes earlier too but the alliance with the Congress was the biggest blunder”, he said in an interview with a local TV channel here. He said that the central committee has a clear decision to maintain equal distance from both the Congress and the BJP but the alliance forged in West Bengal was a clear violation of that. He questioned how the central committee has approved it.

Dhar’s outburst is specially significant as the Tripura state committee of the CPI(M) is going to meet here on May 26 where the matter is likely to be discussed. The sentiment of the state committee also will be communicated in the next meeting of the central committee.

The CPI(M) Polit Bureau and central committee which was supposed to meet from May 23 at Delhi has been postponed and the date for the next meeting is yet to be announced. The political circle fears that the meeting has been deferred apprehending dissidence.

It may be recalled that the Tripura unit of the CPI(M) was against this alliance from the beginning and Chief Minister Manik Sarkar was reluctant even to go for campaigning in West Bengal. Interestingly he has declined to go to attend the swearing in ceremony of the Kerala Chief Minister Pirayi Vijayan scheduled to be held on May 25. It is learnt that the Chief Minster has declined the invitation citing pre occupation in Tripura.

The reaction of the Tripura state committee seem to be a sign of bigger tussle ahead in the CPI(M) as the West Bengal state committee has decided to continue the alliance even after the electoral debacle.