CPM Politburo meeting today: Will party go for alliance with Congress in Bengal?

New Delhi, Feb 16: The Bengal unit of the CPI(M), which is keen to have an alliance with the Congress for the Assembly elections in West Bengal, will be eagerly waiting for the outcome of the party's politburo meeting scheduled here on Tuesday.

The Bengal state committee has overwhelmingly spoken in favour of an alliance and will look to how the CPI(M) leaders from Kerala, who are against the alliance, take their stand at the meeting.

While CPI(M)'s Kerala committee secretary K Balakrishnan and Politburo member Pinarayi Vijayan have strongly spoken against the idea of a tie-up with the Congress, former chief minister of West Bengal, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, is likely to send his counter viewpoints to the Politburo and Central Committee meetings. All eyes will now be on former secretary general Prakash Karat, during whose tenure the Left had withdrawn support from the Congress-led UPA government at the Centre in 2008.

In the plenum held in Kolkata in last December, Karat did not take a hard position against the alliance and said there that the election strategy would be taken keepung in mind the prevailing mood in the lower rungs of the Left. The Left leaders from Bengal are hopeful that Karat would not oppose the idea in the Politburo and Central Committee meetings for he is aware about the big support that the Bengal unit has shown towards an alliance with the Congress.

The Kerala unit has opposed the idea of allying with the Congress for it is aiming to topple the ruling UDF led by the latter to return to power in the southern state.

The 16-member Politburo is dominated by leaders from Kerala and it is believed that instead of directly naming the Congress, the meeting could see an indirect reference to 'allying with the secular forces' to avoid the dispute take a serious shape.

Oneindia News