In a show of solidarity ahead of the Lok Sabha polls in West Bengal, the Communist Party of India (Marxist)-led Left Front organised a rally that saw several senior leaders address a huge crowd of people in Kolkata on Sunday.
The event took place at the Brigade Parade Grounds, the same venue at which Trinamool Congress chief and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s United India rally was held on January 19. A video shared by Twitter user Aparna, showed drone footage of the Left rally from the venue.
Workers of the CPI(M), the Communist Party of India (CPI), the All India Forward Bloc and the Revolutionary Socialist Party shouted slogans like “BJP hatao desh bachao, Trinamool hatao Bangla bachao” (Remove BJP save the country, Oust Trinamool save Bengal). The message was also echoed by several Left leaders including CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury.
According to the Tribune, CPI-M state secretary Surjya Kanta Mishra claimed that the gathering for the Left rally was twice the size of the previous one.
“There were 23 speakers that day and most were PM aspirants,” he was quoted as saying. “Today there are nine, but zero PM aspirants. But I can safely say the audience that day was half this size. That shows the real difference between us and her in the eyes of the people.” However, the exact number of attendees was not clear.
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