Loktrantik Janata Dal to contest TMC despite Brigade rally

Even after Loktrantik Janata Dal (LJD) chief Sharad Yadav stood beside West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee at the Brigade Parade Ground rally, senior members of the party’s state unit said that they would stay away from the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) in West Bengal and would support Left democratic forces in the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections.

While the state unit of LJD’s organising committee was formally announced on January 21, LJD national general secretary Amitava Datta made no bones about the party’s support to the Left forces. “In Bengal we will support the Left and democratic forces because our prime aim is to oust the BJP in the 2019 elections. That had always been our stand. We had done that in the 2016 Assembly elections as well,” Datta told DNA citing the example of Congress leaders who had stood on stage with Mamata but West Bengal state leaders had decided to contest against her.

He said that within a month the president of the state unit would be elected and a membership drive across the state would begin.

Another national general secretary of the party, Arun Kumar Srivastava, said that they were not yet strong enough to fight in all the Lok Sabha seats. “As far as West Bengal is concerned, let’s be realistic. We are yet to become a formidable force in the state and in an alliance we might contest in one or two constituencies,” Srivastava said.

He conceded to Yadav’s statement that the imminent trouble was to defeat the BJP in the general elections but at the same time it didn’t mean they would have to forge an alliance with TMC in Bengal. “A one on one fight against BJP is not possible in all the states owing to different political equations,” he said.

Political scientists said that even if LJD approached the TMC which is looking at winning all the 42 Lok Sabha seats in the state, it was a remote possibility that TMC would leave any seat to an LJD candidate which hardly had any presence in Bengal. It was clear from what TMC supremo and CM Mamata said that whichever party was strong in a state should take on the BJP.