CPI-M adopts alternative strategy on opposition synchronisation after decling representation in INDIA's Coordination Committee

Kolkata: The CPI-M leadership has decided to adopt an alternative strategy to collaborate with other members of the INDIA bloc following its virtual decision on not sending any representative to the coordination committee of the opposition bloc.

And that strategy, according to party insiders, will be to individually interact and hold meetings with the top leaders of other INDIA constituents having representation in the coordination committee and discuss the crucial issues on opposition synchronisation and seat sharing.

Needless to say, said a senior Central Committee member, the Trinamool Congress will not be in the list of those Coordination Committee constituents with whom the party leadership will hold individual synchronisation meetings.

It has been decided that the synchronisation meetings will be initiated by CPI-M General Secretary Sitaram Yechury, who will fix appointments with the supremos of the constituents of the INDIA bloc Coordination Committee and accordingly hold meetings with them.

"Already our General Secretary has started the process since September 14, the day after the first meeting of the Coordination Committee. From then till September 21, he had individually met NCP leader Sharad Pawar, JD-U chief Nitish Kumar and RJD leaders Tejashwi Yadav and Tej Pratap Yadav at their respective residences in their native states. In the coming days, he will be holding similar interactions with the leaders of other constituents in the coordination committee except with that of the ruling party in West Bengal," the Central Committee leader said.

In fact the decision of not sending any representative in the Coordination Committee was clearly prompted by the CPI-M's disinclination to share the dais with Trinamool national General Secretary Abhishek Baneree, against whom the party is holding regular protest demonstrations in West Bengal over the various financial scams in the state.

However, the party leadership has camouflaged that actual reason with the argument that "organisational structures" are not necessary to take the process of Opposition unity forward. Political observers feel that this alternative strategy is an overall smart move both on counts of the overt stand of "redundant organisational structures" and the covert stand of "total distancing from Trinamool Congress".