Vote TF to power, WB communists urge electorate

West Bengal's ruling Left Front leaders Monday urged the electorate to help vote the communist-led Third Front to power during the Lok Sabha polls.

"I appeal to the people of our state to cast their votes in favour of the Left Front in the coming general elections so that we could form our government at the centre with support of the newly-formed Third Front," state Front chairman Biman Bose told a political gathering here.

He said: "We want to win in all 42 seats from West Bengal so that we can strengthen the arms of the third alternative at the centre."

The state Left Front had called a workers' conference here at the Salt Lake stadium to boost the morale of the party cadres before the coming April-May elections.

Criticising the seat-adjustment between the Congress and the state's main opposition Trinamool Congress, West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee said: "The opposition forces have thrown a challenge before the Left Front and they are trying to malign its image by false campaigning. We've to defeat them."

"We've no scope to go back. We've to advance with our political ideology. Though we know it will not be possible overnight," he said.

CPI-M patriarch Jyoti Basu, who was not present on the occasion due to his ill health, urged his party workers to drum up support for the third front in a recorded video message.

"It will be a very important election this year. We've to provide support to such a government which will work for the common people of India," Basu told a party conference in the video speech.

Urging his party activists to strengthen the foundation of the Third Front, he said the Left parties had supported the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) in the 14th Lok Sabha just to stop the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) from coming into power.

"We supported them on the basis of some common minimum programmes. But, the UPA has cheated the common people," he said.

"This time, we have to strengthen the third force. And for that, people of the state (West Bengal) will have to elect the Left Front candidates in the coming elections. Now the onus is on you," Basu said.

Supporting the third alternative, other LF leaders - Communsit Party of India (CPI) state secretary Manju Kumar Majumdar, Forward Bloc (FB) secretary Ashok Ghosh and Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) leader Debabrata Bandhopadhyay - also exhorted the workers to carry the message of the third froce across the state.

"The alternative of the Left Front in West Bengal is the Left Front itself. There will be no political alternative here," Majumdar said.

"We've to create a new record this time by electing the Left Front candidates in all 42 Lok Sabha seats from West Bengal," he said