KOLKATA: Hours after Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee branded the CPI(M) as the BJP’s prime agent and launched an attack on the Left party and the Congress while dismissing the INDIA bloc alliance in West Bengal, senior leaders of the state’s erstwhile ruling party joined the grand old party’s Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra on Thursday in Murshidabad.The CPI(M)’s state secretary Mohammad Selim, central committee member Sujan Chakrabarty and others joined Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s yatra in Mushidabad giving a clear indication that the two allies of the INDIA bloc are all set to share seats in West Bengal in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.However, Mamata, on Thursday, continued slamming the CPI(M), saying it had joined the Congress to secure electoral dividends for the BJP while addressing a gathering in Nadia’s Shantipur.“Bengal will show the path to uproot the BJP from the Centre. Our party will contest in the Lok Sabha polls alone. We wanted to share seats but the Congress did not respond. I agreed to give them two seats but they wanted more. The CPI(M) joined hands with the Congress to help the BJP,” said Mamata.The CPI(M)’s red flags co-existed with the Congress party’s flags during Gandhi’s yatra event that marched along arterial roads in Behrampore, Mushidabad, a stronghold of the grand old party.Mamata also reminded the gathering about the alleged atrocities during the regime of the CPI(M) in West Bengal.“We have come here to express our solidarity. Our presence in Gandhi’s yatra event is an expression that we are in favour of justice and against injustice,” said CPI(M)’s Selim.In the 2021 Assembly elections, the CPI(M) and the Congress formed an alliance and contested by sharing seats.Covering 523 km across six West Bengal districts, the yatra has travelled to Alipurduar, Jalpaiguri, Uttar Dinajpur, Malda and Murshidabad during the second phase of the event which scheduled to enter Jharkhand on Friday.Taking a jibe at the alliance between the two parties, TMC spokesperson Kunal Ghosh said, “The Congress has forgotten that it was the CPI(M) that had branded Rahul Gandhi’s grandmother Indira Gandhi as a witch. In the graffiti, they also portrayed his father Rajiv Gandhi as a thief. Time will decide the fate of the alliance.”Upping her ante against the BJP-led Centre, the Bengal chief minister will start staging a 48-hour sit-in-demonstration from Friday in Kolkata in protest against the state not getting its dues from the Centre. Mamata, during her recent north Bengal trip, announced the dharna event which appears to be a political move against the BJP before the Lok Sabha polls.She claimed the state’s dues amount to a mammoth Rs 7,000 crore for several central government-run schemes. Last month, she also met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and placed her demand.
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