Slamming the Trinamul Congress for its opposition to the panchayat election’s schedule during Ramazan, former chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee vowed of not repeating the mistakes of the past. He pledged to bring back those who had deserted the Left after the debacle in the Assembly polls.
He also cautioned the party’s rank and file of not committing the old mistakes again. “A section of people has alienated from us due to our mistakes. We have rectified our faults. I bow my head and assure that we will not commit the mistakes anymore. Please come back,” Mr Bhattacharjee told an election campaign rally in Bagnan of Howrah on Sunday.
Referring to the Left cadres the CPI(M) politburo member warned: “Do not commit the mistakes again and shun high-handedness.”
His clarion call to win back the lost support-base of the Left came barely four days ahead of the first phase of the rural polls starting from July 11.
Slamming the ruling party for its stand against the state election commission over the Ramazan issue Mr Bhattacharjee said, “Now they (TMC) have launched a new agitation over the Ramazan... Didn’t it cross their mind earlier? We had demanded the elections to be scheduled in May.” He pointed out that the panchayat polls had almost become uncertain until the Supreme Court had ordered.
“Who delayed the election? It was the Trinamul because they wanted to conduct the election in their own way and win it by force by not allowing others to file nomination. It was the apex court which ruled in the favour of the SEC, directing a five-phase poll which the SEC had sought for. The elections would not have been scheduled in absence of that order,” Mr Bhattacharjee claimed.
He also took a dig at the government’s proposed law against the chit fund.