West Bengal Elections 2016: Left- Congress alliance nationally is a possibility, says CPI

With Congress and the Left Front fighting together against the Trinamool Congress in Bengal, CPI national secretary Atul Kumar Anjaan on Thursday said there is a possibility that the alliance can be replicated at the national level in the coming days.

Speaking at a news channel's interactive session centring the ongoing Assembly polls in West Bengal, Anjaan said the Left shall be "happy" to be a part of the grand alliance if Congress reverts to the welfare policies of Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi. "If Congress reverts to the welfare policies of Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi and raises the voice of the millions of the toiling masses, we shall be happy to be part of a grand alliance for the people," a press statement issued by the channel quoted the CPI leader as saying.

Anjaan, however, maintained that the Left's poll tie-up with Congress in Bengal was a "need based alliance to rescue the state from the dire situation it has been pushed into by Trinamool". Congress MP Pradip Bhattacharya, who too participated in the session, said it was good that the Left was changing their stance on many issues for the larger good of Bengal in particular and India as a whole.

Speaking at another session of the programme, TMC national spokesperson Derek O'Brien termed the Congress- CPI(M) alliance as "T-Shirt and Pajama" alliance and expressed his confidence that Mamata Banerjee will return as the chief minister of Bengal with a "comfortable" majority.

"This is a T-shirt and pajama alliance. You change T-shirt and pajamas every day. These two parties change their ways every single day. They are fighting in Kerala and friends in Bengal! Everybody can see what they are up to," the statement quoted the Trinamool leader as saying.