Senior CPI-M leader uses naxal platform

Claiming that the Left Front has failed to cope with the situation in West Bengal, controversial Communist Party of India-Marxist leader Abdur Rezzak Mollah on Tuesday used a naxalite platform, without party consent, to call for building a strong Left platform to 'resist attack' on farmers and the working class in the state.

"The Left Front is unable to cope with the situation. I want to strengthen the Left forces and invite all to come under one umbrella and formulate a common minimum programme to fight the attack on the left forces, farmers and working class," Mollah said.

Stating that he would not leave the CPI-M and work to strengthen his party, Mollah, the Chief Whip of the CPI-M Legislature Party however, said he had not sought permission of his party for attending the naxalite programme.

"I have not done any anti-party act which can invite disciplinary action against me," he said defensively. Mollah has earlier been censured by the CPI-M for going against party line and openly holding responsible former chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee for the electoral defeat of the Left Front in last year's assembly elections in the state.

Stating that he strongly felt that mere application of Left ideology would not help, he said "What is required in the present context is carry on the struggle in a more soft and flexible manner."

Asked what prompted him to take such a move, he said "I am pained to see that democracy is in peril and Left parties and farmers are under attack under the present dispensation."

Mollah, a former land revenue minister, slammed Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for her 'failure' to protect the rights of farmers at Singur. "I will launch a march to Singur on July 3," he said.