Other INDIA bloc parties will fight in Bengal to defeat BJP, TMC: CPM

New Delhi, March 11 (PTI) Trinamool Congress announcing its candidates for all seats in West Bengal means the other INDIA bloc parties will have to sit together and decide how to go about the polls, Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary Sitaram Yechury said, adding that they will fight to defeat the "BJP and TMC".

Asked about the TMC's decision to go solo in West Bengal, Yechury said, "Every party has the right to take decisions. If TMC has announced, it is a clear indication that rest of the parties will have to sit together and decide how to proceed in fighting these elections in Bengal."

"Our line has always been very clear. We are asking all secular forces in Bengal to come together to defeat the BJP and the TMC, which actually has taken such unilateral decisions... CPI(M)'s appeal has always been to defeat BJP and defeat TMC in order to save democracy in India and Bengal," he said.

The TMC has stepped away from the INDIA bloc, the mega opposition alliance against the BJP which includes the Congress and the CPI(M), and announced to go solo in the Lok Sabha polls in the state. The Congress leaders maintained they wanted to enter a seat-sharing agreement in the state.

The TMC has blamed Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury's remarks and the Congress' proximity to the Left, specially during Rahul Gandhi's Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra in the state, for the failure of the seat-sharing talks.

On Sunday, ending speculations of a possible seat adjustment with the Congress in Bengal, the TMC announced its candidates for all 42 Lok Sabha seats. Marking a significant overhaul, it replaced seven sitting MPs and introduced several new faces. PTI