CPM, Congress join hands for Bengal, Assam poll

New Delhi, October 31

Ending months of specualtions, the Communist Part of India (Marxist) has decided to have “electoral understanding” with the Congress for the forthcoming Assembly elections in West Bengal and Assam, due for mid-next year.

In Kerala, the CPM will continue to contest election as part of the Left Democratic Front (LDF), and in Tamil Nadu it will be part of the DMK-led alliance.

“In West Bengal, the CPM and the Left Front will have an electoral understanding with all secular parties, including the Congress, which seek to defeat the BJP and the Trinamool Congress,” CPM chief Sitaram Yechury said.

The CPM helms the Left Front in Bengal and the LDF in Kerala. With the BJP bagging 18 of the total 42 Lok Sabha seats in Bengal in the 2019 General Election, the view of joining hands with Congress strengthened in the Left circle. — TNS

Shah to visit West Bengal

Kolkata: In a fillip to the West Bengal unit of the BJP ahead of the 2021 Assembly elections, Union Home Minister Amit Shah will be on a two-day visit to the state from November 5 to take stock of the party’s organisational matters, sources said. PTI