Samir Putatunda, who heads the Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS), has alleged that fissures are emerging in a larger Left unity ahead of rural and Lok Sabha polls and accused the CPM of distancing itself from smaller Left forces for selfish reasons.

"In the 2024 general election, we will identify the BJP as the biggest enemy. Our call will be to defeat the saffron camp. The CPM thinks this message will help the Trinamul Congress and this is why it has started moving away from us," Putatunda, a former CPM leader, told TheTelegraph on Monday.

To cite an example, he said his party had received a communication from Left Front chairman Biman Bose to participate in the March 29 rally from Ramlila Maidan in the city.

"Previously, all communications were made on behalf of the 14 Left parties. Why will we participate in a rally called by the Left Front?" Putatunda asked. The 14 Left parties refer to a larger Left alliance beyond the eight parties that constitute the Left Front in Bengal.

Putatunda had been the CPM's South 24-Parganas district secretary till March 2001. He was expelled from the CPM and went on to become one of the founders of the PDS, along with former CPM MP Saifuddin Chowdhury.

During the tumultuous days of the Singur and Nandigram agitations that led to the defeat of the Left Front in 2011, Putatunda's political outfit stood by Mamata Banerjee's Trinamul to strengthen her fight against the CPM. However, the PDS fell out with Trinamul in 2017 and had since invested itself in widening the scope of the Left movement in Bengal."

Till June 2022, we worked together as part of the group of 14 Left parties, which included the CPM as well. But suddenly, they snapped all ties and started functioning on their own," Putatunda said.

He said he was not interested in personal attacks and had left the CPM because of political reasons.

Putatunda had recently claimed that he had played a crucial role in securing a government job for Mili Chakraborty, the wife of CPM's central committee member Sujan Chakraborty.

While the CPM vehemently rejected his claims, Putatunda maintained that during the Left rule, it was customary to appoint party cadres to government jobs.

"I'm not saying Mili was incompetent or ineligible. However, there could have been even more competent and better candidates for the job. But Mili superseded them because Sujan was a party worker," Putatundasaid on Monday.

"Before the systems of School Service Commission and College Service Commissions were established, teachers and professors had been recruited by the managing bodies of the respective institutions. These bodies were flocked by CPM leaders and mostly party cadres were employed," Putatunda said, adding that the erstwhile Left government had realised that people were aggrieved by that process of recruitment and hence, a more transparent form of the appointment had come into place.

"The SSC and CSC came into being because the CPM realised what it was doing earlier was wrong. There was nepotism during the Left rule. But what prevails now is corruption. We would have said this from the stage we would have shared with the CPM. They couldn't digest the idea and that is why we have been sidelined," Putatunda added.

The CPM has claimed Putatunda is being used by Trinamul to defame the previous government.

"We have always been in favour of the larger Left unity. But we want only those who are truly Left-minded and are not working at the behest of Trinamul or the BJP. The PDS is one such outfit that wears a Left facade but is actually working for them," said CPM state secretary MdSalim.

"We find it below our dignity to reply to someone who was suspended from the party for taking away computers, telephones, and a vehicle provided to him by the party," Salim said in reply to Putatunda'sallegations.

Putatunda had been ousted from the CPM following allegations that he had refused to part with a telephone, a computer, and a jeep provided to him by the party. It was also alleged that he had refused to provide the accounts for his trip to Cuba, which was sponsored by the party.

However, Putatunda maintains that it was he who had resigned from the party because of political differences and not otherwise.