<p>Referring to a rejoinder published in the CPM mouthpiece People’s Democracy recently, accusing him of levelling baseless charges against the party, Chatterjee said he was “amazed at the deliberate distortion of facts.” <br /><br />Lambasting the party leadership for its “abysmal failure” and “splendid isolation” from the people, Chatterjee said in a statement on Saturday that the “desperate and comic attempt” to form a Third Front of heterogeneous outfits before the last Lok Sabha elections failed to draw support even from “die-hard” partymen.<br /><br />The CPM gave “ridiculous assurance to its members that it would come to power and would provide opportunity to the party’s general secretary (Prakash Karat) even to head such a government. “I get the impression that in its anxiety to justify its unfathomable decision which has brought the party to its present sorry state, the CPM has made a desperate effort to indulge in character assassination.”<br /><br />Chatterjee denied having ever stated that “the Left had some foreknowledge that the ‘cash-for-vote’ row during the trust motion would come up in Parliament nor had I insinuated that there was some co-ordination between BJP and the Left in this matter.” <br /></p>
<p>Referring to a rejoinder published in the CPM mouthpiece People’s Democracy recently, accusing him of levelling baseless charges against the party, Chatterjee said he was “amazed at the deliberate distortion of facts.” <br /><br />Lambasting the party leadership for its “abysmal failure” and “splendid isolation” from the people, Chatterjee said in a statement on Saturday that the “desperate and comic attempt” to form a Third Front of heterogeneous outfits before the last Lok Sabha elections failed to draw support even from “die-hard” partymen.<br /><br />The CPM gave “ridiculous assurance to its members that it would come to power and would provide opportunity to the party’s general secretary (Prakash Karat) even to head such a government. “I get the impression that in its anxiety to justify its unfathomable decision which has brought the party to its present sorry state, the CPM has made a desperate effort to indulge in character assassination.”<br /><br />Chatterjee denied having ever stated that “the Left had some foreknowledge that the ‘cash-for-vote’ row during the trust motion would come up in Parliament nor had I insinuated that there was some co-ordination between BJP and the Left in this matter.” <br /></p>