The Hindu : Front Page : Mamata unsure of poll prospects: CPI(M) leader

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Monday, Feb 21, 2011
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Mamata unsure of poll prospects: CPI(M) leader

Staff Reporter

KOLKATA: Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee's appeal to the supporters of the Left parties to vote for her party at a rally here on Sunday demonstrates that she is not confident of her chances in the upcoming elections to the State Assembly, Mohd. Salim, senior leader of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), has said.

Mr. Salim, member of the CPI(M)'s central committee, said: “She has every liberty in a democracy to appeal to the supporters of any party but this shows that she is not confident in the upcoming polls.”

“Two years ago or even a year back, she was very confident of her own support base, but now even with the ‘grand alliance,' Ms. Banerjee is unsure. Even among those who supported the Trinamool Congress during the panchayat, Lok Sabha and civic elections, a section of the voters do not want to vote for them in the coming elections,” he claimed.

The CPI(M) was also critical of the promise made by the Trinamool Congress chief to release all political prisoners from jails in West Bengal if the party came to power.

Maoists' arrest

Pointing out that a large number of suspected Maoists have been arrested by the State police, another member of the CPI(M)'s central committee Shyamal Chakraborty told journalists that these people had been booked as per law.

“She [Ms. Banerjee] will release all of them…..Of course she will do so because they are killing supporters of the Left Front. This statement of hers is a fresh encouragement to Maoist actions,” Mr. Chakraborty said.

Bhunia's letter

Meanwhile, the State leadership of the Congress welcomed her call for an alliance with the party even as it regretted that its call for a joint movement with the Trinamool Congress against “the violence of Maoist and Marxist cadres” had gone unheeded.

The State leadership of the Congress welcomed Ms. Banerjee's call for an alliance.

“Two months ago, I had written a letter to the Trinamool Congress to come for a joint movement against the violence perpetrated by the CPI (M). I received an acknowledgement letter but no reply on the call for a joint movement,” Manas Bhunia, president of the West Bengal PCC, told The Hindu.

Alliance intact: Congress

“We have always maintained that the alliance was, is and shall remain intact,” said Dr. Bhunia, adding that it was a directive “from the anti-CPI(M) people” of the State.

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