Bengal panchayat polls | No democracy in State, says Sitaram Yechury

Days after the joint Opposition meeting, General Secretary of Communist Party of India (Marxist) Sitaram Yechury attacked All India Trinamool Congress party alleging that the State administration is complicit in the political violence that has killed 10 persons during the ongoing panchayat elections. 

Days after the joint Opposition meeting, General Secretary of Communist Party of India (Marxist) Sitaram Yechury attacked All India Trinamool Congress party alleging that the State administration is complicit in the political violence that has killed 10 persons during the ongoing panchayat elections. 

“They can’t say they want democracy in India and therefore, oust the BJP and then in Bengal [you throttle democracy]. That is not acceptable,“ he said. His comments come days after the two parties sat across each other in the joint Opposition meeting held on June 23 in Patna. 

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Mr. Yechury was addressing a press conference at the end of a two-day Polit Bureau meeting in Delhi. Accusing the TMC Government, he said, it has become a norm in West Bengal that elections are marked by largescale violence and terror.

Young CPI(M) activist Mansoor Alam was among the casualties. Mr. Yechury added, “Killing 10 people in the State doesn’t demonstrate intent to save democracy. Mansoor Alam, who was in his 20s is hacked to death. What does it mean?”

He pointed out that in the last panchayat elections, 34% seats went uncontested. Elections should be held freely and fairly. The police and the State administration are complicit and connived to propagate this politics of terror and violence in the State, he added. “There is no democracy in West Bengal,” he said. 

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