Preparing itself for next year’s West Bengal elections, the CPI (M) today said it will have an “electoral understanding” with the Congress to meet the twin challenges of the Trinamul Congress and the BJP, and defeat them in the State polls.

Building a wider secular front to fight the BJP, which is trying to emerge as an alternative force in the State, the CPI (M) Central Committee said the party and the Left Front, will join all secular parties, including the Congress, its all-time adversary, to defeat the BJP and the Trinamul Congress.

Deliberating on the party’s electoral tactics for the Assembly elections for two days, the Central Committee said that in Assam too, the CPI (M) will contest the elections in cooperation with all secular opposition parties including the Congress to defeat the incumbent BJP government in the State.

Party general secretary SitaramYechury told newspersons that the Central Committee had endorsed the proposals of the respective party State committees in Kerala, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal Assam for the coming Assembly polls.

In Kerala, the party will continue to contest elections as part of the LDF. In Tamil Nadu, the CPI (M) will contest the elections as part of the DMKled alliance. In Assam too the CPI (M) will join forces with the secular parties including the Congress to defeat BJP government, which is “sharpening communal polarisation, destabilizing social harmony and heaping miseries on the people.”

The party will extend its complete solidarity and support to the kisan protest action calls of 26-27 November and will also support the call of the Central trade unions for a nationwide general strike on 26 November.

Yechury said the Central Committee had concluded that the BJP Central government was utilizing the period of the pandemic and the consequent disruption of normal life and activities due to lockdown restrictions etc. to advance its “core RSS agenda” of converting India into a “Hindutva Rashtra.”

The Central government had virtually abdicated its responsibility towards containing the pandemic, he said. Yechury said the Central government cannot abdicate its responsibility on the provision of the vaccine against Covid19 free of cost. The Centre cannot pass on the buck to the state governments, he said.