Sitaram Yechury was speaking at a press conference in Kolkata, a day after sharing the stage with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee during the swearing in of Karnataka Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy.
CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury on Thursday said the matter of a federal coalition against the BJP will become clear only after the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
Yechury was speaking at a press conference in Kolkata, a day after sharing the stage with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee during the swearing in of Karnataka Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy.
“There is no monolithic structure in the country. All governments are formed after the elections. Only after the elections will it become clear what kind of a coalition will take place. In the last CPM party Congress, it was decided that our objective would be to maximise the anti-BJP vote. The coming together of SP and BSP has been a major rallying point for all opposition parties. Even in UPA-II, while CPM was fighting Congress in the states, at the Centre the CPM supported the Congress-led alliance. As far as federal fronts are concerned, before 2014, many such fronts had been proposed. But did any front actually materialise? We will only be able to tell after the elections,” said Yechury.
The CPM leader went on to talk about the “brutalities” that had taken place during the recent panchayat elections in the state.
“This kind of brutality has not been seen before anywhere in the country in any election, where the candidates were not even allowed to file their nominations. Of the people who were shot, you will find in every case they were either shot in their backs or their stomachs. That too without any warning or without the use of water cannons first. What the TMC has carried out here has been the mockery and murder of democracy. The State Election Commission has simply behaved as a stooge of the ruling party. We have met the Central Election Commission and appraised them of what has happened in Bengal and demanded an inquiry,” he said.
Yechury further said that despite the outcome of the panchayat elections, which were swept by TMC, there had been a revival of resistance against the ruling party.
“People are rallying together against TMC now. Political parties, leaders, voters, everyone. Even teachers who have been on election duty have taken out protests as they had also faced brutalities and oppression. This is a very good sign for democracy and the country. We will continue with this resistance and lend momentum to it,” he said.
The CPM leader claimed that there was an understanding between the Trinamool Congress and BJP.
“Didi and Modi bhai practice competitive communalism. They are both two sides of the same coin. Our slogan will remain ‘Modi hatao, desh bachao’ for the country and ‘TMC hata, Bangla bachao’ for West Bengal,” he said.
“The BJP president has created a record by forming governments while losing elections – he has done this in Manipur, Goa and Meghalaya. In Karnataka, he failed to hijack the mandate of the people by forming the government. In the Karnataka elections, the BJP had 30 per cent of the vote share while Congress and JD(S) had 56.6 per cent. The formation of the government by Congress-JD(S) alliance has been necessary for the country and a shot in the arm for the Opposition,” he added.