The alliance of opposition parties formed against BJP and Narendra Modi for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections has suffered a major setback.
Because in the recent Polit bureau meeting of CPI (M), an important political party included in this alliance, it has been decided not to send any member from its party to the Coordination Committee of India Alliance.
After the conclusion of the two-day long Politburo meeting, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has issued a statement saying that they are not in favor of any organizational structure within the alliance, CPIM believes that whatever decisions will be taken in the alliance of opposition parties, they will be within the constituents. Will be taken from the leaders of the parties. Therefore, there should not be such a system in the alliance which can become dominant in such decisions.
However, the CPIM Politburo has decided to work for the consolidation and expansion of the INDIA alliance to strengthen efforts for secularism, restoration of democratic values, protection of people’s fundamental rights and civil liberties.
However, in the party’s statement there is no mention of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections or the purpose for which the alliance was formed.
The Coordination Committee consisting of 14 members is considered the strongest in the INDIA alliance. In a way, it can also be called the highest decision making body of the INDIA alliance.
This committee includes NCP President Sharad Pawar, Congress Organization General Secretary KC Venugopal, JDU President Lalan Singh, Bihar Deputy Chief Minister and RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav, Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren, National Conference President Omar Abdullah, Abhishek Banerjee of Trinamool Congress, PDP. Senior opposition leaders like leader Mehbooba Mufti, Aam Aadmi Party’s Raghav Chadha and CPI general secretary D Raja are included. But the absence of CPI (M) in this committee is raising serious questions on the intentions of the alliance.
According to information received from sources, CPI (M) does not at all agree with the current situation of seat distribution for the Lok Sabha elections in West Bengal and Kerala. In both these states, India is preparing to contest the elections alone against the alliance. It is noteworthy that CPI (M) did not win a single seat in West Bengal in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Whereas in his own state Kerala he had to be content with just one seat.
Now, under the INDIA alliance, CPI (M) is staking its claim on more than a dozen seats in these two states, which is troubling Mamata Banerjee in West Bengal and KC Venugopal in Kerala. At present, in the seat distribution in West Bengal and Kerala, both Congress and Trinamool do not seem to be in a position to give much importance to CPIM.
After the results of the recent assembly by-elections in Tripura, it seems that the CPIM is very much concern and serious at the grassroots level here. It also needs the crutch of Congress to keep showing its flags in Bengal. Only in Kerala is the Left Democratic Front (LDF) government running under its leadership.
In such a situation, the question is that when this leftist party will stay away from cooperating with India Bloc in these two states, then what kind of alliance is being discussed?
