Senior CPIM leader Asok Bhattacharya today said that the “method” that the Trinamul Congress has adopted was not right to dislodge the BJP from power at the Centre.

“When Mamata Banerjee is the chief minister of West Bengal, the CPIM is in power in a state like Kerala. The CPIM as well as the Left is still one of the strongest forces in West Bengal and Tripura. Besides, the Left is also a force in Maharastra, Bihar and other states. Can the TMC show its strength in other states except in Kolkata?” Mr Bhattacharya, a former state minister, said.

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According to him, the Trinamul Congress has formed its organisation in Manipur and Tripura, but that almost all TMC members joined the BJP in the two states later. While on one hand political observers believe that without the Congress, it was difficult for the “third front,” comprising regional parties, to prevent the BJP from coming to power once again.

Mr Bhattacharya, a state CPIM secretariat body member, on the other hand, said: “We also want to dislodge the BJP jointly with all anti-BJP political forces. We also don’t have any objections if the Trinamul Congress comes and joins hands.” Mr Bhattacharya added that Sharad Pawar and a few others were not enough to be reckoned as a major force to take on the BJP.

“Significantly, except for TMC leaders, no one has projected Mamata Banerjee as the Prime Ministerial candidate. Only TMC leaders have been promoting Miss Banerjee when all antiBJP political parties need to be united without promoting someone,” he said. “Once the name of former West Bengal Chief Minister, the Late Jyoti Basu, was proposed by several political parties as the prime ministerial candidate, but the party did not agree to it,” he added.

Notably, Trinamul Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee today called upon all antiBJP parties to dislodge the BJP from power at the Centre, while she also showcased governance of West Bengal as a model for the nation. Miss Banerjee was addressing a virtual rally to mark her party’s Martyrs’ Day today.

Significantly, Trinamul Congress leaders made arrangements to air the programme in different states, where other political parties, which are followers of Miss Banerjee, watched the same in giant screens. From the district to the booth level, TMC leaders marked the Martyrs’ Day all across the state. In Siliguri, the party under the leadership of Gautam Deb organised a programme to mark the day.

The former state tourism minister, Mr Deb said: “This is for the first time the Trinamul Congress organised a virtual rally in eight other states, from Tripura to Gujarat. Trinamul Congress chief Mamata Banerjee will lead India politically and we are waiting for the day when the BJP will be dislodged under the leadership of our leader Mamata-di.”

On the other hand, the BJP leadership in Bengal significantly staged a Dharna in Delhi under the leadership of state president and MP Dilip Ghosh. Other BJP leaders and MPs joined the programme, which focused on the “misrule” of Miss Banerjee, while it highlighted the several incidents of post-poll violence in West Bengal after Assembly elections.

“Today, as TMC celebrates its Martyrs’ Day marking the killing of 13 Youth Congress workers by West Bengal Police, I wonder if they will ever reflect on the fact that in 2017 WB police killed 13 peacefully protesting Gorkha youths in Darjeeling,” Darjeeling MP Raju Bista, who attended the event in Delhi, said.

To counter the TMC’s programme and the party’s projection of Miss Banerjee as the prime ministerial candidate, Mr Bista said: “The people of Bengal voted for TMC and Mamata Banerjee as an alternative to the brutal Communist regime led by CPIM. She had promised to free the people from the dictatorial rule and cruelty unleashed by the CPIM. But after coming in power, she has gone on to become more dictatorial and autocratic and committed more atrocities on the people than the communists.”