The initiative taken by the Forward Bloc to include leftist parties and individuals in the same programme with the Trinamool Congress on January 23 on the occasion of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose’s 125th birthday has generated a sense of perplexity for the Left and has raised new questions. A section of the political establishment is beginning to see the Forward Bloc initiative ahead of the Assembly polls as an attempt to bring the anti-BJP secular forces under one umbrella.

As a result, several leftist parties, including the CPM, do not want to take any risk in this regard. At a recent meeting of the Left Front parties, the Forward Bloc leadership was asked to consider alternatives to the programme.

However, the Forward Bloc is still adamant over this approach of unison (of non-BJP forces) to the programme. However, in this situation, they are going to hold bilateral talks with the CPM. According to a source in the Front, the Netaji Janmajayanti Committee of the party has planned several programmes this year on the occasion of the 125th birthday of Subhash Chandra Bose.

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Recently the committee has been further expanded to include representatives of non-BJP parties. Leaders of all non-BJP parties, (in West Bengal) including the Trinamool Congress and the CPM, were present at the meeting. Later, the issue of joining the ruling party in the state on one platform was brought at the centre of attention in the political arena and discussion. As a result, the left parties now want to walk the path of change. Politically speaking, to the Left front, the matter is now somewhat akin to allying with arch-rival and enemy. The front is caught in a catch 22 situation.

Left leaders feel that if Biman Basu and Suryakant Mishra walked side by side in the procession with the Partha Chatterjee on January 23, a wrong message could be sent to the people before the vote. At a recently held meeting, the front’s allied leaders asked Naren Chatterjee, the state secretary of the Forward Bloc, and Hafiz Alam Sairani, another top leader in the party, to change their minds.

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Some observers have noted that many may apparently consider the initiative apolitical. But when political leaders step together, it is no longer apolitical. Past experience speaks for itself. Therefore, left leaders including Biman Basu and Suryakanta Mishra have appealed to the Forward Bloc to think of alternatives.