With several opposition parties holding a meeting aimed at forging unity for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury on Monday ruled out any alliance with the TMC in West 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 at the venue of the two-day meeting to be attended by him, TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee, and other leaders, Yechury referred to 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 that gives the BJP the advantage should be minimal. This is not a new thing. Like in 2004, the Left had 61 seats, out of which we won 57, defeating the Congress candidates. Then the Manmohan Singh government was formed, and it ran for 10 years,” Yechury said. “Mamata and CPI (M) will not happen. There will be secular parties along with the Left and the Congress in West Bengal that will fight against the BJP and TMC,” the CPI(M) general secretary said, adding that at the Centre, what form this will take will be decided later. He also said that the road to be taken is similar to the one that led them to form the government at the Centre in 2004.