Forward Bloc stands back as Left turns to Cong

Their differences with the Left over electoral adjustments with the Congress notwithstanding, the Forward Bloc will continue to be an integral part of the Left Front in West Bengal and Tripura.

At the national level, however, the Bloc asserted that there is “no possibility” of sharing a manifesto with the Left parties.

“The Forward Bloc will release a separate manifesto,” Bloc general secretary Debabrata Biswas said.

Describing the Congress andthe BJP as “agents of international capitalism”, Biswas said his party saw no difference in the economic policies pursued by the BJP or the stand taken by the Congress on economic issues.

Cautioning the CPM and the CPI about sailing “too close” to the Congress, the Forward Bloc’s Central Committee which met here yesterday said the two Left parties should realise the danger of “bipolar politics of the bourgeois parties.”

Biswas said the Bloc did not share the perception of “some Left leaders” — that the Congress was the lesser evil when compared to the BJP. While the BJP had an “out and out communal agenda”, he said, the Congress had “often made compromises”, both politically and economically.

The AIFB will play an active role in floating a people’s alternative which will recognise the “twin dangers” posed by the BJP and the Congress, Biswas asserted. But for this, a “joint initiative of the Left parties is very much required to build up such an alternative,” he added.