In the backdrop of the Dinhata police-firing incident in which four Bloc workers were killed and the forthcoming panchayat elections, the one hour long meeting between the two veterans here had generated enough speculations of the Bloc quitting the Left Front.

“Ashok Ghosh said that he respects SUCI, but his party will not be able to leave the Left Front right now. He said that Bloc will fight the CPM from within the Front and will extend issue-based support to SUCI,” Pravash Ghosh said after coming out of the Bloc’s office.

Nevertheless, the Bloc’s decision to remain in the Front for the time being has left the field open for some more political negotiations.

“We asked the Bloc to reconsider its position, as the Left Front has stopped functioning as a ‘Front’ and is more of a single-party government. Even if the Forward Bloc cannot respond now, it will have to do so later,” Pravash added.

In a bid to forge an alternative Left “Morcha” to “oppose the CPM’s anti-people policies”, the SUCI will be holding a meeting with another disgruntled Left Front member—the RS— on Tuesday.

The violence in Nandigram and the alleged ‘big brother’ attitude of the CPM had led to wide chinks in the Left Front with RSP and Bloc leaders publicly criticising the government. These two parties have also objected to Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee’s aggressive industrialisation and controversial land acquisition policies.