Forward Bloc to review its alliance with CPI-M

By T.G. Biju, New Delhi, Nov 11 : The All India Forward Bloc, a major Left Front partner, is likely to review its decades-old association with the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) after the continuing electoral debacle of the Marxist-led ruling alliance in West Bengal.

"We will review our alliance with the CPI-M in our Party Congress to be held in Kolkata Dec 17 to 21," a top Forward Bloc leader told IANS.

A senior Forward Bloc leader even said the 16th Party Congress to be held in Kolkata would decide whether the party founded by Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose should go with Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee's surging Trinamool Congress.

Besides the Forward Bloc, the Communist Party of India (CPI) and the Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) are the other partners in the CPI-M-led Left alliance in the country.

The Forward Bloc leader said the issue of association with the Marxists has not been discussed in any high-level party committees so far.

"We are under pressure from our workers to review our alliance with the CPI-M. This is a major demand being raised in the party conferences being held ahead of the Party Congress," the Forward Bloc leader said, requesting anonymity.

He said the Forward Bloc did not have any problems with Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee.

"She is too soft towards us. Mamata once attended an all-party meeting on Singur and Nandigram convened by our state general secretary Ashok Ghosh," said the Forward Bloc leader, who is closely associated with senior CPI-M and other Left party leaders.

Continuing with its electoral debacles since the Lok Sabha elections in May, the CPI-M remained blanked out in all the seats it contested in the assembly by-election held to 10 seats Saturday.

Trinamool Congress bagged all the seven seats it contested, retaining five and wresting Belgachia East and Rajganj from the CPI-M in the by-election. While the Congress won one, an Independent supported by the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha bagged one.

The Forward Bloc was the only Left Front partner that won one seat - the Goalpokhar constituency in North Dinajpur.

Asked whether the party has got any invitation from the Trinamool Congress leader to join them, he said: "We had got an invitation when Nandigram and Singur movements were heating up."

He said the party was against the CPI-M's policy in Nandigram and Singur.

"We even formed a mini-front within the Left Front to oppose the CPI-M. This also forced the state government to abandon the projects there," said the Forward Bloc leader.

Tata Motors withdrew its small car project from Singur last year after a section of farmers, led by the Trinamool Congress, carried out a sustained agitation for return of 400 acres of the acquired 997.11 acres to farmers.

Following widespread violent protests, the state government was also forced to pull out of Nandigram, where it was hoping to set up a chemical hub with Indonesia's Salim group.

This is for the first time in 25 years that the Forward Bloc is holding its Party Congress at Kolkata, the party leader said.

--IANS