Battered Left loses nerve: Recovery seems difficult

“There is no shortcut for this. We have to go to the people. If we reach them properly,only then they will come back to our fold. But this is a very tough job,” Sen said.

Addressing the rally,CPM state secretary Biman Bose blamed his party’s reverses on a big conspiracy. “Imperialists are funding them to kill our supporters,to create anarchy in West Bengal,” he alleged.

Sen,who played a key role in the industrialisation in the state,gave his party the credit for the success of the UPA government in its first stint when it was backed by the Left.

“We had supported the government with certain conditions. It is because of our presence that they could not implement reformist programmes like pension reforms,liberalisation of bank and insurance sector. We were behind the enactment of the National Rural Employment Generation Act,” Sen said.

Earlier,at a party gathering about a month ago,Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee had called upon party cadres to bring about a turnaround. “There might have been some mistakes,we are rectifying them. We can regain lost ground,” the CM had said.

Land Minister wants purges from top
Land and Land Reforms Abdur Rezaq Mollah,a strong critic of Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee,today said it was high time the CPM be purged of unwanted elements or else the party faced a bleak prospect in 2011 Assembly elections.

Mollah was reacting to Left Front’s loss of Siliguri Municipal Corporation.

“In a Communist party,the superstructure is first built and purging should be started from the top. Elements like land mafia,middlemen,crime lords have sneaked into the party. Unless those unwanted elements are purged,it will have to face the consequences,” Mollah said.

The minister said the party should start recruiting young men from poor families. “I have already started the drive and I believe we can survive only that way.”