New Delhi: The mainstream Left movement in the country contributed to the leftwing extremism in the country but has not become its victims, says Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee.
"After all, from where these Left extremists are coming? They are not coming from heaven. They are not coming from any other planet. They are the products of a wrong philosophy. And no doubt the Left movement in this country has contributed to this," Mukherjee told Congress-controlled Jai Hind TV channel.
"But now they are becoming the victim of this, as it is happening in West Bengal," he told the Malayalam channel in an interview telecast Monday.
Mukherjee said the central government was working together with the West Bengal government and other affected states to "eliminate leftwing extremists".
The veteran Congress leader said the party would fight the 2011 West Bengal assembly elections with Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee`s Trinamool Congress and expressed the hope that it would end the three decades of Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) rule in the state.
"We will go along. Trinamool Congress and the Congress alliance have good chance of defeating the Left parties in the assembly elections. So I see the possibility of change of government in Bengal," Mukherjee said.
He said it was high time for Left rule in Kerala and West Bengal to come to an end.
"Both in Kerala and in West Bengal... not only the state governments... (the Left should be defeated) even in the panchayat and other elections too," Mukherjee said, referring to next month`s local bodies polls in Kerala.
IANS
