CPI-ML general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya on Wednesday appealed for a united Opposition to defeat the BJP and the fascist forces in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Bhattacharya was speaking at a rally named Loktantra Bachao, Desh Bachao (Save democracy, Save the country) that kicked off the 11th national congress of the party in Patna.

He stressed that the strengthening of the Congress with the Bharat Jodo Yatra led by Rahul Gandhi was a good omen for the country.

“We are organising a save democracy convention on February 18 as part of our national congress in which chief minister Nitish Kumar, deputy chief minister Tejashwi Prasad Yadav, former chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi, Congress leader Salman Khurshid, Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren and leaders from Tamil Nadu will attend. We will try to ensure that a strong message of struggle and unity of the Left and the Opposition parties goes out across the country from here,” Bhattacharya said.

“The 2024 elections are before us. There is not much time and we need to expedite our efforts. The good thing is that all the Opposition parties are preparing for it in their own way. Our friends from the Congress took out the Bharat Jodo Yatra under the leadership of Rahul Gandhi from Kanyakumari to Kashmir. This is a good thing. It is a very good omen for Opposition unity if the Congress becomes strong and energised,” Bhattacharya added.

He said that asking whether Nitish or Rahul or Mamata Banerjee would be the face of the Opposition was irrelevant at this juncture. “Let a hundred flowers bloom. When the time shall come, one of them will become the face of the Opposition. There is no problem,” he said.

Bhattacharya attacked the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi for “running a government of the rich that thinks it can buy democracy”.