The meeting is the latest attempt by the Bloc, which holds the important portfolio of agriculture department in the state cabinet, to revive the mini-Left Front within the framework of the existing alliance to put a check on the CPM. The meeting was attended by Ashok Ghosh, Hafiz Alam Sairani and Naren Chatterjee of the Bloc and Kshiti Goswami, Biswanath Chouwdhury and Manoj Bhattacharya of the RSP.

The Bloc, RSP and the CPI had initially formed the mini-Left Front to exert pressure on the CPM on land acquisition issues after the police firing in Nandigram on March 14.

“Today’s meeting was convened to convince the RSP of the merits and the necessities of the Bloc’s decision to contest alone in the coming panchayat elections outside the umbrella of the Left Front,” said a party source. Insiders believe that without taking other Left allies into confidence, the Bloc and its state secretary Ashok Ghosh will be left alone in its crusade against the CPM.