New Delhi, May 13 (Inditop.com) The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) is yet to decide on sending top leaders like general secretary Prakash Karat and politburo member Sitaram Yechury to West Bengal for the civic poll campaign, party sources said here Thursday.
The election to Kolkata Municipal Corporation and 81 other municipalities in the state will be held May 30.
“Senior leaders are unlikely to travel to West Bengal to campaign in the local body elections as the party decided to avoid hard-hitting meetings in the big towns,” said a senior West Bengal CPI-M leader, declining to be named.
The party, which suffered a setback in the general elections last year due to a good performance of Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress, has changed its campaign strategy for the civic polls.
“We are holding only small meetings. Our workers have been instructed to carry out simple ‘individual to individual’ contact,” said the CPI-M leader.
Admitting that the party is facing a huge challenge from the Trinamool Congress in the civic polls, the senior West Bengal leader alleged that “there is every possibility of a last-minute understanding between the Congress and the Trinamool Congress, though at present they are contesting polls separately.”
The Congress and the Trinamool Congress have failed to forge alliances in any of the 82 municipalities which are slated to go to polls.
A CPI-M official said here that the party would take a decision on the senior CPI-M leaders’ campaign in West Bengal Monday.
Yechury is currently in Hanoi, Vietnam, to attend a three-day international seminar organised by Ho Chi Minh academy of public administration.
