The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M), with the support of the Congress party in West Bengal, has not only decided to put up a candidate against the Trinamool Congress (TMC) at the Dhupguri bypoll, but will also hold a joint rally on the very day the Indian National Developmental, Inclusive Alliance or INDIA Opposition bloc is likely hold its third meeting in Mumbai.
CPI(M) State secretary Md. Salim and State Congress president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury will hold a joint public meeting at Dhupguri on September 1, when 26 Opposition parties, including the CPI(M), the Congress and the TMC, will chalk out a plan to take on the BJP in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
Mr. Salim said that the Left parties were trying to bring the people against the BJP-Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh’s (RSS) attempts to hijack the Constitution, and the TMC doing the same in West Bengal. The CPI(M) leader also added that since the Trinamool had no influence outside West Bengal, the question of the rally’s impact on the Opposition alliance did not arise.
Mr. Chowdhury too confirmed his presence at the September 1 public meeting.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has on several occasions raised questions on the role of the CPI(M) and the Congress leadership in West Bengal. “The three [the Left parties, the BJP and the Congress] have come together. At Delhi, we are trying to forge a grand alliance against the BJP. They want to have a ‘mahaghot’ grand tangle. We will break apart the grand tangle in Bengal,” Ms. Banerjee had said in July this year.
The CPI(M) has fielded Ishwar Chandra Roy, a folk music artist and retired teacher. The Congress party has decided to support the candidate. In February this year, the Congress candidate for the Sagardighi Assembly bypolls was supported by the Left parties.
Bypoll to the Assembly seat in north Bengal is scheduled on September 5. The bypoll was necessitated by the death of BJP MLA Bishnu Pada Ray on July 25.
The BJP has fielded Tapasi Roy, widow of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) jawan Jagannath Roy, who died during a terror attack in Kashmir in March 2021.
The TMC has fielded Nirmal Chandra Roy, a professor at the Dhupguri Girls College, for the seat.
The CPI(M) held the Dhupguri seat from 1977 till 2016, after which the TMC candidate won the seat. In the last Assembly polls of 2021, the sitting Trinamool MLA Mitali Roy lost to BJP’s Bishnu Pada Ray by a slim margin of over 4,000 votes.
