Left and Congress will fight BJP and TMC in Bengal with secular parties, Sitharam Yechury said (File/PTI)
With several opposition parties meeting to forge a united front ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury today ruled out any alliance with the Trinamool Congress in Bengal and said that secular parties along with the Left and the Congress will take on the BJP as well as the TMC in the state.
Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the two-day Opposition huddle in Bengaluru, Mr Yechury spoke about the 2004 model which brought the Left-Congress coalition to power at the Centre.
"The situation is different in every state. The effort is to ensure that in these situations, the division of votes, which gives the BJP an advantage, should be minimal. This is not a new thing. In 2004, the Left had 61 seats, of which we won 57, defeating the Congress candidates... the Manmohan Singh government was formed and it ran for 10 years.
"Mamata Banerjee and the CPI(M) will not happen. There will be secular parties along with the Left and the Congress in Bengal which will fight against the BJP and the TMC," the CPI(M) general secretary said.
The road that will be taken is similar to the one that led them to the formation of the government at the Centre in 2004.
Top leaders of 26 opposition parties are attending the two-day meeting in Bengaluru where they are expected to start work on a common minimum programme and announce a joint plan to take on the BJP in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
West Bengal has been a bone of contention within the Opposition ranks with the Left parties and Mamata Banerjee's TMC not seeing eye to eye. The Left parties have also attacked Ms Banerjee over the violence in the recently concluded panchayat polls in the state.
However, the two have shared the stage on several occasions at events held by the Opposition.
The BJP has often highlighted the differences among the opposition parties in various states, including West Bengal, to claim that they are a "divided lot" and have no specific programme other than to defeat Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Hitting out at the BJP for claiming that it has 31 parties with it, Mr Yechury said that the biggest parties of the northeast, the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) and the Akali Dal are no longer with the BJP.
"Now they are looking everywhere to find small parties to add to their numbers," he said.
Asked about the face of the Opposition to take on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Mr Yechury said that in 2004, the Left-Congress coalition won despite Atal Bihari Vajpayee's stature.
"The road is like the one in 2004. As for the face of the opposition, we have given them the answer in 2004 when Manmohan Singh became the PM even when a charismatic leader like Mr Vajpayee was the face of the BJP," he said.