Buddhadeb admits mistakes, asks cadres to shun arrogance

KOLKATA - Conceding that arrogance of a section of party cadres had alienated the masses from the Left Front government, West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee Sunday kickstarted the alliance’s campaign for the upcoming assembly polls by exhorting the workers to reach out to the people and not “boss” over them.

Addressing a mammoth Left Front rally at the Brigade Parade ground here, Bhattacharjee charged the Trinamool Congress with having the backing of “some foreign agencies” and “divisive forces” and said bringing such forces to power would lead to the masses losing whatever rights they had earned during the front’s three decades of rule.

“We have made some mistakes. We have learnt our lessons from that. Some leaders have a bossy attitude. We have lot of good workers who have done a lot for the people. But because of some leaders, our party is getting a bad name.

“Don’t try to boss over people. Bow your head to the people, give them a patient hearing… shun arrogance… Love people, reach out to the people, mingle with the people,” said Bhattacharjee, a politburo member of the front’s major partner Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M).

Months away from the state assembly polls, the CPI-M led Left Front (LF) is apparently going through its leanest phase in its 34-year old reign with the Trinamool Congress led-opposition winning a series of elections over the last three years.

The once impregnable red fort had shown signs of wear and tear in the 2008 panchayat polls, before crumbling in subsequent elections to the Lok Sabha, and civic bodies, besides some assembly by-polls.

Bhattacharjee also attacked the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government at the centre, saying it was mired in corruption and scams.

“Congress has done nothing to control skyrocketing prices of essentials.The government is mired in corruption,” he said.

“Being a party of the wealthy classes, it is trying to evict the Left Front from power. But they should remember that we had uprooted them in such a way in 1977 that since then they had not returned to power in the state,” he said.

Bhattacharjee also claimed that the railways - run by the Left Front’s bete noire and Trinamool chief Mamata banerjee - would not provide any fresh employment to the youth.

Cocking a snoop at Banerjee laying foundation for a plethora of railways projects, he said: “It will take a long time to uproot all the stones laid by the railway minister in the past few months. No industry will come up.”

Left Front Chairman Biman Bose also flayed the Trinamool for stalling development projects.

Urging people to rebuff the Trinamool, which he described as an “evil force”, in the coming assembly election, Bose said: “Trinamool is impeding development work besides instigating violence across the state with the help of the Maoists.

“Development is not possible in the absence of peace. What the Trinamool and the Maoists are doing jointly is not in the interest of the state. It is an attempt to push the state backward,” Bose, also a CPI-M politburo member, said.