Cong, Left plan joint Brigade rally

Kolkata: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and CPM veteran Sitaram Yechury are likely to share dais at the Brigade Parade Grounds here in the run-up to the Bengal assembly elections.
At a meeting on Thursday, Left Front chairman Biman Bose and Congress negotiators Pradip Bhattacharya and Abdul Mannan firmed up a plan to hold a joint gathering at Brigade by February-end or early March to clear confusion over a possi-ble tie-up ahead of the polls.
“We have taken up joint programmes on January 23, 26 and 30. As a part of the initiative, we will hold a joint gathering at Brigade Parade Grounds,” said Bose while Congress Rajya Sabha member Bhattacharya, seated by his side, endorsed the plan. Congress leaders have reportedly told the Left brass that they will invite the Congress high command to the rally.
The proposed gathering is a throwback to an election meeting at Park Circus Maidan ahead of the 2016 assembly polls, when former chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee had shared the dais with Rahul and Deepa Das Munshi. The initiative back then didn’t get the approval of the CPM central committee under Prakash Karat. CPM, however, made provisions for such an alliance when Yechury took over as party general secretary.
Talks over seat adjustments didn’t proceed much on Thursday as Pradesh Congress president Adhir Chowdhury couldn’t make it to the meeting. Chowdhury was busy holding a public meeting in Murshidabad’s Kandi, where the Congress veteran lambasted both Trinamool and BJP. tnn