Kolkata: Star campaigner for Assembly
polls in West Bengal and state housing minister Gautam Deb was
on Friday criticised by Left Front chairman Biman Bose for
allegedly making unsavoury remarks against Trinamool Congress
chief Mamata Banerjee in election rallies.
Bose, who was speaking at the Rajasthan-Bengal Maitri
Parishad, said, "If Gautam Deb has used such language, he has
not done the right thing."
Bose, who is also the CPI(M) state secretary, alleged that
foul language was being used by leaders of opposition parties
and also questioned their body language, saying "people who
had thought of a change have had second thoughts and decided
to stick with the Left Front owing to such behaviour."
At this, Bose was asked about his own language in a recent
meet-the-press programme and some of his party colleagues'
remarks, to which he said he had not made any comment about
any opposition leader or named anyone.
Bose was then questioned about Deb's alleged personal
remarks about the Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee
and reference to her in a derogatory fashion, to which a
defensive Bose said that if Deb had used such language, then
he had not done the right thing.
The Left Front chairman, however, appeared confident of
an eighth consecutive win in the Assembly elections despite
having done badly in all elections since 2008 panchayat and
2009 Lok Sabha polls, saying, "There won't be much change in
the 2006 results. There may be a little plus or minus, but
overall the results will remain the same."
The Left Front had recorded a landslide victory in the
2006 elections winning 235 seats, but could win only 15 seats
in the 2009 Lok Sabha polls of which CPI(M) managed a meagre
nine seats, while the Trinamool Congress rose from just one
seat in 2004 to 19 seats out of 42 in the state.
Bose asserted that the fact that the people of the state
have remained quiet this time and hardly gave vent to their
feelings does not signify that they have decided in favour of
a change, and claimed that Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee would
retain his Jadavpur seat and be the Chief Minister again.
PTI
First Published: Saturday, April 23, 2011, 00:16