May opt for seat adjustments with Congress and tribal party in Tripura: Sitaram Yechury

AGARTALA: CPI-M General Secretary Sitaram Yechury on Wednesday said that his party is ready to make seat adjustments with Congress and the tribal party TIPRA to defeat the ruling BJP in the coming Assembly polls in Tripura.

He, however, criticized the West Bengal unit of the party for forming a "front" with Congress and other parties in the 2021 Assembly polls.

Yechury said that defeating the ruling BJP in the forthcoming Assembly elections in Tripura is the principal target of the CPI-M and for this, the formation of an alternative secular and democratic front is necessary.

To a question, he said that the party's Central Committee had criticized the West Bengal unit for taking the seat adjustment to the level of a political front - People's Front.

"Forming a political front is an alliance. Seat adjustment aimed to pull maximum votes in favour of the secular parties. In the CPI-M's 23rd party Congress (held at Kannur in Kerala) a suitable electoral tactical policy was adopted to fight against the BJP and RSS. We are seeking secular parties' unity," the CPI-M chief told the media after the party's two-day state committee meeting.

Justifying the seat adjustments with the Congress in the forthcoming Assembly polls in Tripura, Yechury said that the Left parties fought against the Congress along with the elements now in power for the promulgation of the emergency in 1975, but now for the sake of democracy, communal harmony and secularism, unity of all secular parties including the Congress are crucial to fight against the BJP.

Regarding the TIPRA's (Tipraha Indigenous Progressive Regional Alliance) demand for a separate tribal state "Greater Tipraland", the CPI-M leader said that his party also has been trying to provide maximum possible autonomy to the tribals and an amendment was moved in the parliament long back in this regard.

CPI-M Tripura state Secretary Jitendra Chowdhury, who was also present in the media briefing, said that earlier some other outfits had been demanding sovereign Tripura, but now the TIPRA wants constitutional solutions to the tribal issues.

Refuting the claim of Union Home Minister Amit Shah that "Communist parties have been finished from the entire world", Chowdhury said that Shah distorted the facts even as the Communist parties even very recently came to power in Nepal, Brazil and many other Latin American countries. (IANS)

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