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Basu dismisses Mamata’s remarks

KOLKATA: Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee’s remarks that her party was now alone and trying to stand on its feet were political opportunism, veteran Marxist leader Jyoti Basu said on Friday.

The question of the Left parties softening their stand in their opposition to the India-U.S. civilian nuclear deal did not arise, he said.

The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) will meet on September 28 to discuss progress made by the political committee set up by the Centre to look into certain aspects of the deal being opposed by the Left.

This is to be followed by a three-day meeting of the party’s central committee.

On Ms. Banerjee, Mr Basu said : “She joins the NDA and at the next minute the Congress, whenever it suits her ...The Congress in West Bengal has no principle and is now eagerly awaiting how soon she [Ms. Banerjee] joins hands with it,” he added.

“But we have to stay with [support] the Congress at the Centre” for other purposes, Mr Basu pointed out to newspersons while emerging from a meeting of the CPI(M) State secretariat.

Neither did he give much credence to the suggestion that the Trinamool Congress and the Congress were getting together with future elections in the State in mind, even though the leadership of the latter has talked of a “political understanding” with the Trinamool Congress on the condition that it formally severs ties with the Bharatiya Janata Party.

But the Trinamool Congress does continue to enjoy some popular support in the State, Mr. Basu admitted. “Some people are with them not all of whom are anti-socials. We [the Left] will have to reach out to these people,” he said.

He scoffed at Ms. Banerjee’s explanation of her fondness of the former Prime Minister and NDA leader, Atal Behari Vajpayee, for sticking with the alliance. “In my entire political career spanning 67 years I have not heard of anything more strange,” Mr. Basu said.

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