By IANS,
Kolkata : Dissent surfaced in the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) Monday with West Bengal Sports Minister Subhas Chakraborty saying it would not be correct to vote against the Congress-led government along with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Chakraborty, who is also a CPI-M state secretariat member, said in a letter to CPI-M general secretary Prakash Karat that he was only trying to attract the party’s attention to his opinion.
“Being a small party member, I have given a letter to our general secretary not to go with the BJP during the confidence motion in parliament. I’ll try to attract the party’s attention to my opinion internally,” Chakraborty told reporters at the state secretariat.
He said the Communists would have to answer embarrassing questions from the people for a long time if the party’s MPs voted against the Congress.
“Very few political parties in West Bengal would ever want to topple a government along with the BJP,” he said.
Chakraborty, known for airing views that often fuel controversies, said the 19th CPI-M party Congress earlier this year had decided that the party would be with the forces of secularism and oppose communalism.
“As per our party’s understanding, the BJP comes under the communal category,” he said.
Asked about the CPI-M’s stand on whether Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee should resign, he said: “I don’t think he should resign from such a respectable post in parliament. Somnath Chatterjee was unanimously elected by 14 different national parties to become the speaker.”
The CPI-M and three other Left parties withdrew support to the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) last week protesting the government decision to go ahead with the India-US nuclear deal.
The government has sought a confidence vote in the Lok Sabha July 22.