United with Congress to save democracy, says CPI-M leader

Kolkata: CPI-M politburo member and the party's West Bengal state Secretary Mohd Salim on Thursday said that the Left Front, led by his party, has got united with the Congress for the sake of saving democracy.

Salim, who attended the Nyay Yatra rally of Congress led by Rahul Gandhi in Murshidabad district, also criticised the attack on the rally both in Assam and West Bengal.

"The manner in which the Nyay Yatra is facing hurdles both in Assam and West Bengal, I have no words to condemn that," he said.

Salim also launched a scathing attack against Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for her comments that it is because of the CPI-M that her Trinamool Congress's understanding with Congress got spoiled.

"One thing is clear that Mamata Banerjee is trying to use CPI-M as a shield to break away from Congress and thus help the BJP. Since the beginning of the formation of INDIA. bloc, I had been saying that while a lot of passengers got in the same train, nobody knew who would get down where and when. Now Mamata Banerjee is asking the train to halt so that she can get down. She is welcome to do that," he said.

Incidentally, on Thursday only, while addressing an administrative review meeting in the adjacent Nadia district, Banerjee accused both the CPI-M and the Congress of having an unholy nexus with the aim of helping BJP in the Lok Sabha polls.

Congress leader Jairam Ramesh too acknowledged the role of CPI-M and other Left parties in the INDIA bloc.

"In each and every meeting of the bloc, the Left parties were there," he said.

He also claimed that the BJP is resorting to vendetta politics being scared by the massive public support that the Nyay Yatra has received. "Before we entered Bihar, they made Nitish Kumar swing to their side. Now they have arrested Hemant Soren before we are all set to enter Jharkhand," Ramesh said.