The Congress-led Manipur Progressive Secular Alliance has made light of the resignation of 48 members of ally CPI.
The CPI, too, brushed it aside as a “local issue”.
Peeved about the alliance, 48 CPI members in the Wangjing-Tentha Assembly constituency resigned from the party. This was announced on February 4 at the residence of former CPI candidate for the constituency and State executive member Haobam Robindro. He accused the Congress of taking advantage of the CPI while condemning the latter’s State council for forming the alliance despite stiff opposition by most of the local council members.
“The formation of the alliance was undemocratic and the CPI’s Manipur State council deceived the supporters of communism,” Mr. Robindro said, also accusing the CPI leaders of preparing to vote for some corrupt Congress candidates.
Former Manipur Minister and CPI’s national executive member M. Nara said differences over the denial of ticket to a party leader had led to the mass resignation.
“Besides funds, winnability is a major factor in elections and we did not have potential candidates this time. So, we fielded only two candidates,” he said, terming the Wangjing-Tentha resignations as a local issue.
State Congress spokesperson K. Debabrata said the issue was nothing to be worried about. He did not rule out the possibility of the “disgruntled” CPI members being supporters of the Bharatiya Janata Party.
“Some in the CPI may not like to support us, but what matters is the support from a majority of the Left Front members,” he said. The allies of the Congress are the CPI, the CPI(M), the Janata Dal (Secular), the Republican Party of India, the Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) and the Forward Bloc.
