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In a change of stance following the West Bengal assembly polls in which it failed to open an account, the Communist Party of India-Marxist has hinted that it is ready to join hands with the Trinamool Congress to fight the Bharatiya Janata Party at the national level.
The CPI(M)-led Left Front, the Congress, and the newly formed Indian Secular Front (ISF) formed an alliance and contested the assembly election held earlier this year and the parties had declared that both the TMC and the BJP are their principal enemies.
Like the Left party, the Congress too drew a blank in the election while the ISF emerged victorious in one seat.
"We are ready to work with any anti-BJP party. This has been our stance whenever the need arose for a big movement against divisive forces from Kashmir to Kanyakumari," CPI-M politburo member Biman Bose told reporters to a question on whether the CPI-M will be with the TMC to prevent the BJP from coming to power in the 2024 Lok Sabha election.
Bose, also the West Bengal Left Front chairman, was talking to reporters on the sidelines of a meeting at Tamluk in Purba Medinipur district on Sunday.
Top CPI-M sources, however, said that Bose's comments do not signify any immediate shift in the party's stance as he made that statement in response to a reporter's query.
"To effect such a change in policy matters, the party has to pass a resolution after taking up the issue at its state committee meeting," a senior CPI-M leader said.
On the issue of continuing with the alliance with the Congress, Bose said, "So far we are concerned, we are not severing ties with anyone."
TMC supremo and state Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee who apparently seeks to take up a larger role in national politics prior to the 2024 Lok Sabha election, on Monday left for Delhi on a five-day visit.
She is slated to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi and several front-ranking opposition leaders.
In a dig at the CPI-M, BJP spokesman Shamik Bhattacharya claimed that the Marxists have surrendered before the TMC forgetting the atrocities they faced in the past 10 years of Mamata Banerjee's rule.
"The CPI-M has forgotten the attack on its activists in 2018 panchayat polls by the Trinamool Congress and is ready to join hands with a bloodthirsty party like the TMC. After losing relevance in the state, they have lost all self-respect," he said.
If the TMC and the CPI-M, which have been thriving on opposing each other for long, form such an opportunistic alliance to stop the BJP, they will be rejected by people, Bhattacharya claimed.
The Mamata Banerjee-led party came to power in West Bengal in 2011, ousting the 34-year-old Left Front government. The TMC has been ruling the state since then.