Communist Party of India Marxist General Secretary Prakash Karat is confident that his party would do well in the forthcoming elections in West Bengal and Kerala. He was addressing a press conference in New Delhi on Friday evening.
"We will take stock of the feedback from the two states later next week. In Kerala there is a tradition that after five years there is a change in the government. Only Congress has once broken this tradition and it would be our effort to do the same in the ensuing state assembly elections", Karat said.
Does that mean that they have already given up the fight in West Bengal where their main challenger Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress is gearing up to take over the state administration? "Would Bengal go the same way as the railway ministry has done," asked a journalist.
"You have given the answer yourself", Karat said with a smile. "We will break the pattern in Kerala and maintain it in West Bengal.... We are concentrating in ensuring that the pattern is broken in Kerala," he said in reply to questions.
Responding to the question whether the party was trying to expand its base in Tamil Nadu by entering into alliance with All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, Karat said it was only electoral alliance. "You do not expand the base on the basis of electoral alliance. Base is expanded by the party itself," he clearified.
Why did the party deny so many sitting MLA's seats in the assembly elections, he said that the party is trying that those who have served two stints as MLAs should make place for someone else.
"Just because some of us have grey hair does not mean that we have grown old. 40 per cent of our cadre is below thirty five years of age. Hence emphasis on giving them tickets," he said.