CPM at arm’s length, Bloc outs own election booklet

Kolkata, April 15 Despite the release of a common election manifesto for forthcoming panchayat elections, the Forward Bloc — the CPM’s partner in the Front government in the state — has decided to release a separate booklet on the party’s stand on issues related to rural Bengal.

Bloc’s state secretary, Ashok Ghosh, said that his party feels that rural people are not happy with every activity of the Left Front government.

From land acquisition to the initiative for retail in farm, people have opposed the agenda of the state government. The Bloc, too, had opposed the state government’s initiative in these sectors,” Ghosh said on Tuesday.

“We are going to publish a separate booklet next week which will cover all the political questions. We do not corroborate with all the ideas of the government, though we have finally decided to contest the polls unitedly,” he said in reference to the Bloc’s earlier decision to contest the panchayat polls on its own.

In November 2006, the Bloc’s state council had decided to withdraw its electoral alliance with the CPM and declared that it will field Bloc’s candidates in all the 51,000 seats. But after the party received a major setback in the Tripura Assembly elections, the Bloc leaders had to change their minds.