West Bengal: Left to organise rally Sunday to show strength before Lok Sabha polls

The CPI(M)-led Left Front in West Bengal will organise a rally in Kolkata on Sunday to give a call to oust Trinamool Congress in the state and the BJP at the Centre.

The rally of the Left Front at Brigade Parade grounds on February 3 comes 15 days after Mamata Banerjee headed TMC's had organised mega opposition parties rally at the same venue on January 19 last.

Though there were more than two dozen leaders of 22 opposition parties, the Left parties had kept a distance from the TMC rally.

"We will give the call to oust TMC in Bengal and the BJP at the Centre. The people of this country are fed up with the Modi government, they want a change," CPI(M) state secretary Surya Kanta Mishra said.

The CPI(M)-led front is pulling all stops to ensure that the February 3 rally turns out to be a massive success. The event is also seen as an attempt by the Left to regain its lost ground in West Bengal.

The Left Front comprises of 10 parties including CPI(M), RSP, CPI and Forward Bloc.

Once a formidable force in West Bengal, the Left Front which lost to the TMC in 2011, ending a 34-year regime in the state, is now fighting hard to make their presence felt in the state.

The Left in last several elections has witnessed a sharp decline in its vote share with BJP outsmarting it to become the main opposition in Bengal.

The role of Left parties in national politics largely depends on the number of seats it will win from Bengal.

In 2004, when CPI(M)-led Left front played a pivotal role in forming the UPA-I government by winning 35 Lok Sabha seats from the state. Nationally, the front had won 62 seats.

In 2014, the CPI(M) had won just two seats in Bengal, while Left Front secured 11 seats.

From flags, posters, slogans and roadside meetings to social media messages on Twitter and Facebook, the party is making all efforts to reach out to the masses.

Apart from senior Left leaders, Kanhaiya Kumar, the former JNU students union president, will be one of the key speakers at the rally.