CPI-M slams Rahul Gandhi’s West Bengal comment

NEW DELHI - The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) Monday came down heavily on Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi for his comment that the days of West Bengal’s Left Front government were numbered, terming it as his “wild dream”.

CPI-M senior politburo member S. Ramachandran Pillai told IANS that the people of West Bengal would “assert” the Left rule in the state in the assembly polls due next year. The CPI-M has been in power for the last three decades in the state.

On a day’s visit to Kolkata Monday, Gandhi denounced the Left Front government and attacked the CPI-M, saying the party “does not belong to the poor people of the state - the adivasis, the marginalised and the poor”.

Pillai said Gandhi should learn from history, and added: “It (Gandhi’s comment) is only his wild dream. He has to learn from history. Right from the beginning, the party is fighting for the poor and upholding workers’ interest.”

Though Pillai admitted that the CPI-M had suffered “some setbacks in the state in the recently held polls”, he expressed confidence that the people will “assert” the Left Front’s rule after the polls.

Pillai alleged that the Congress was in alliance with “reactionary forces” in the state to attack the CPI-M.

“Rahul Gandhi and his party say that they fight Left-wing extremism in the country. On the contrary, they are in alliance with Trinamool Congress, which supports the dreaded Maoists in West Bengal,” Pillai said.