Cong rejects Basu's plea on support

Party sees it as clever ploy to divide Cong-Trinamool votes

And the appeal came from none other than the Marxist patriarch and ailing nonagenarian leader Jyoti Basu,who made an impassioned plea through a written statement on Sunday, exhorting the Congress supporters to vote for the LF.

Quite expectedly, the Bengal Congress on Monday described it as absurd and unacceptable proposal with PCC working President Pradip Bhattacharya saying that this “is a clever ploy on the part of the CPM leadership to divide the Congress-Trinamool Congress alliance votes.

“I tell all those who support the Congress that we gave unconditional support to the Congress against communalism which was in the interest of the country,” the CPM patriarch said in a signed written statement here.”

“Today, when the state is in danger, I specially request them to come forward and support the Left candidates to maintain peace, discipline and development,” Basu said.

In the statement, Basu conceded that the CPM fared badly in the last Lok Sabha polls. “Our result in the last Lok Sabha election was poor. Some of our sympathisers and friends had voted against us. It is not their fault.

“We could not take our viewpoints properly to the people. There were some mistakes on the part of the CPM... I am specially requesting you to come forward for peace, development and discipline and support the Leftists”.

Political compulsion

Referring to Basu’s statement, the PCC spokesman claimed that it was a political compulsion of the CPM to support a secular government at the Centre and that was the reason why it had to support the Congress.

“The CPM, however, did not keep that in mind while withdrawing support from the UPA  government. The UPA was capable enough to complete its five year tenure in office without the  CPM support”, he added.

In the last Lok Sabha elections, the Congress-Trinamool combine decimated the Front by winning 25 of the total 42 seats.