Third grade is higher than first grade: Prakash Karat's response to Narendra Modi

Kolkata: The Left Front can heave a sigh of relief. Even Trinamool, which slammed their rally as 'directionless' had nothing to say about its size compared to their own rally on 30th January. Like Mamata Banerjee's call for 'Dilli Chalo', the Left, too, indicated it was in the race for the capital via a third alternative whose contours, Prakash Karat said, would become clear by this month. Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee slammed both Ms Banerjee and Narendra Modi and said, "I at least have never seen such a big rally in Kolkata before."

Mr Bhattacharjee targeted Ms Banerjee where it perhaps hurts most, bringing up her past links with the BJP and Mr Modi's recent invitation to her to join him.

"Narendra Modi comes here and offers two laddoos...one is Narendra Modi's laddo, the other is Trinamool's laddoo," Mr Bhattacharjee said. "No one will touch those laddoos. If you eat those laddoos, you will regret it."

Prakash Karat also distanced the Left from the Congress and spoke instead of a third morcha or a third alternative. He was however careful not to called it a Third Front that had flopped last time.

"When Narendra Modi came to Kolkata, he called the third alternative 'third grade'," said Mr Karat. "But third grade is higher than first grade."

"When elections will be fought, you will see where Narendra Modi and BJP stand in Bengal, in  Odisha, Bihar, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and Karnataka," said Mr Karat. "In many states, regional non-Congress parties and left parties will all fight against the BJP and Congress."

All these parties are set to meet this month after the Parliament session ends and present the third alternative before the people.

Trinamool general secretary Mukul Roy said the Left rally was directionless, that the Left had said the same things before the panchayat polls and lost in all but one district. But even they could not fault the turnout. On that count at least, there can now be a truce.