The electoral coalition between the CPM and the Congress has inspired two leaders of the respective parties in Durgapur town to take the spirit of the alliance home and readjust the timings of their sons’ wedding receptions to help common guests make it to both the events.

CPM leader and blood donation activist, Kabi Ghosh, had fixed his son Kabya’s wedding on March 8 with a reception on March 10 and it clashed with the dates that Congress leader Tarun Roy had planned for his son Iman’s marriage.

When the dates had been fixed, the poll bells did not toll and the February 28 mega-rally in Calcutta’s Brigade Parade Grounds had not been planned. The announcement of poll dates and the firming up of the alliance between the Left and the Congress got the two leaders thinking and they decided to send a message of unity through the wedding ceremonies of their sons.

Tarun Roy. Swapna Barua

As both the events had a large number of common invitees, the two families opted to rework the ceremony timings. Both had planned to hold the receptions on Wednesday evening. To avoid the clash of the reception timings, CPM leader Ghosh has decided to host a lunch to enable common invitees to turn up for Roy’s dinner in the evening.

“Under the earlier arrangement, most of us would have had to choose one function to attend in place of the other. Even if it was not poll time, this would not have been a good feeling,” said one invitee, a CPM worker from Durgapur town.

Ghosh concurred, explaining that he was unaware of the clash of timings until recently, further explaining that Roy was also “a personal friend”.

“Tarun Roy is one of my closest friends despite his association with the Congress, which was our rival earlier. When I came to know about the clash of dates, I immediately decided to adjust the timing of my son’s wedding reception,” he said.

Asked, Roy said the two sat down earlier this week to find a solution after realising that it was posing a hurdle for the invitees, mostly leaders and workers from both the parties.

“We have been friends for a long time but belonged to rival political parties. We are now political allies and the adjustment at the personal level will send a positive message to the rank and file of the parties,” said Roy.

Both Ghosh and Roy said the adjustment of reception timing was meant to strengthen cordial bonding between the two parties in the town ahead of the polls.

“It is understood that when we can adjust problems and differences of opinions on a personal level, the bonding between us will become stronger. It is a positive message to the grass root level of the party,” said Ghosh.

Both expressed their conviction that the Sanjukta Morcha (the alliance between CPM, Congress and Indian the Secular Front) would come to power defeating both the Trinamul and BJP in May this year.