Left leaders to line up for Nepal Maoist leader’s visit

Kolkata, May 31 To celebrate the fall of monarchy in Nepal, the CPI (Maoist) and twelve other Left parties, will organise a convention at the University Institute Hall on June 23 to be addressed by Baburam Bhattarai, a senior Maoist leader of Nepal. The celebration committee of Maoists in Kolkata announced this on Saturday. The CPM and its Left Front partners are not a part of the committee. Representatives of the CPI (Maoist), which the Centre has termed as a “threat to the country’s internal security”, will also attend the convention.

Convenor of the committee, Santosh Rana said, “ Bhattarai will arrive in the city on June 22. He has agreed to meet a section of intellectuals who had expressed a desire to meet him.” Asked if the felicitation of the Nepal leader can be considered a step towards formation of a Left alternative in the country, Rana said, “We are celebrating the victory of a Left party in Nepal. Each Left party is considering the formation of an alternative in its own way.”

The Socialist Unity Centre of India(SUCI), which had formed an alliance with the Trinamool Congress during the recently concluded panchayat polls, is also a part of the committee.

SUCI state secretariat member Gopal Kundu said: “ We have decided to join the committee because it was formed to welcome a communist leader of Nepal.”