CPM flags strain with Cong, ISF pact likely on Feb 18

Kolkata: CPM general secretary M A Baby on Friday said that the party has a "critically friendly" relationship with Congress and alleged that the latter is refusing to recognise the cooperation.Addressing a media briefing, Baby said, "In some places, Congress is refusing to recognise the cooperation among secular, democratic and progressive forces. Congress wants to take a sectarian approach."
Referring to the INDIA alliance, Baby said it had been decided that cooperation among partners would be state-specific. "There would be fights among the INDIA bloc partners in some states. But that should not be a case where BJP is able to take advantage of that. Our target was to avoid mutual contests among bloc partners in at least 400 Lok Sabha seats out of 543 seats in the country. We have to be realistic and there are problems among the INDIA bloc," he said.CPM secretary in Bengal, Md Salim, said that the party is in talks with its allies in the state and is likely to finalise seat-sharing arrangements at the Left Front meeting scheduled for Feb 18. "Our seat-sharing arrangement with ISF should be complete by then and vision document preparation will also be over," Salim said.The party on Friday launched a new website, banglabachao.com, to highlight issues in the state.Get the latest lifestyle updates on Times of India, along with Valentine's day wishes, messages and quotes !