GUWAHATI, June 29 � In the run-up to the 2016 Assembly elections, the Left parties in Assam have started working towards achieving an understanding with non-Congress and non-BJP forces in the State.
Senior Left leaders told The Assam Tribune that as the first step towards achieving this goal, they are now attempting to broaden the unity within the various Left groups and then expand it to include AGP and other parties.
�We are working to consolidate the Left unity in Assam on the lines of the national effort. Nationally, the four-party Left Front has now been expanded to a six-party common platform with inclusion of the CPI (ML) Liberation and SUCI. Here in Assam also we are working towards greater coordination of the Left forces by launching joint movements on issues ranging from price rise, special category State status and the Central government�s scrapping of social security schemes,� a CPI(M) State Secretariat member said.
He added, �We are also exploring the option of taking this forward towards an electoral understanding of all Left parties in the 2016 elections. And we do not merely want to confine this within the Left Front but also go for an electoral understanding with other non-Congress and non-BJP parties.�
Left leaders, however, made it clear that there is no question of taking the AIUDF on board due to the party�s �communal� nature, but effort will be made for some sort of understanding with the AGP.
�By August, we will take a formal step in this direction. Our ultimate aim will be to have a broad-based front,� the CPI(M) leader said.
Asked about efforts for a united �Left, Secular and Democratic� front, CPI Assam State Secretary Dhrupad Buragohain told this newspaper that such an idea is imperative to defeat the Congress and BJP in 2016.
�Whether it will be a formal alliance or merely some sort of an understanding is yet to be seen. We will first discuss the issue within the Left parties in July. Our party is ready for that,� he said.
It is noteworthy that the Left parties had held discussion with the AGP two months back on the issue of making a united effort in next year�s elections.
�Since the NDA regime took over in New Delhi last year, the situation has turned alarming. The Centre�s pro-corporate line is not only against interests of workers and farmers but is also intended to marginalize the Left and democratic forces. So unity among the Left forces is required,� Buragohain said.
The Left parties will organise a State-wide agitation on July 6 against inflation and other �anti-people policies� of the Centre, which will also seek to consolidate the Left unity.
