KOLKATA: West Bengal BJP President Samik Bhattacharya on Sunday urged the Congress and CPI(M) to set aside political differences and form a “grand alliance” ahead of the 2026 Assembly elections to dislodge the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) from power in the state.Speaking at a BJP-organised event on Kolkata’s Red Road to mark the birth anniversary of Shyama Prasad Mukherjee, Bhattacharya said the fight was against what he called “Islamic fundamentalism” and “fanaticism” in Bengal required collective political effort.Bhattacharya alleged that 70,000 books in the Indira Gandhi Library in Bangladesh were burned, and that in Murshidabad, a teacher was attacked by the very people he had taught just the day beforeHe termed these incidents as examples of fanatic Islamic fascism, describing it as a curse for the entire world and a cancer of human civilization that must be eradicated.He added, “No political party alone can find the path to this liberation. All political parties have to come forward.”Bhattacharya referred to historical events to support his appeal. “In 1947, Jyoti Basu cast his vote defying his party line (voting on a bill took place on June 20, 1947, in the then Bengal Legislative Assembly for partition of Bengal which created today’s West Bengal). Today, efforts are being made to forget that history, and they (the Trinamool Congress government) are celebrating 1 Boisakh (April 15) as ‘West Bengal Day’,” he said.“I pay tribute to those MLAs who voted for Shyama Prasad’s proposal despite being elected as Congress members. I pay tribute to Jyoti Basu and Ratanlal Brahma, who created West Bengal. Stand up against those who are tarnishing that history,” Bhattacharya added.He further said, “Atal Bihari Vajpayee had handed over all his weapons to Indira Gandhi. Today’s fight is also a fight to rise above politics. If you respect Jyoti Basu, come forward to save the West Bengal he built.”
Source link
