The CPM on Tuesday reiterated during its farmers’ unit event here that the Left Front constituent would do its best to strengthen the anti-BJP bloc INDIA nationally, but would maintain its distance from the Trinamul Congress in Bengal.

CPM central committee member Sujan Chakraborty and others stressed the party’s avowed anti-Trinamul stand in the state.

“We are not going to waver from our stand against the BJP and all communal forces across the nation, and we remain committed to our equidistance from the BJP and Trinamul,” he said.

The CPM has been in a precarious position since its Bengal archrival, Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamul, joined others along with it in the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA).

The CPM politburo, over the weekend, gave its seal of approval to the state committee’s view that the party should maintain its fierce resistance to Trinamul in Bengal, much like its stand in Kerala against the Congress.

“Each state has its own ground realities. The situation in Kerala and Bengal is not similar to states in north India. We are a national party, quite like the Congress, and we believe we have a much larger, crucial role to play in the fight against the BJP,” said Chakraborty, who pledged against his party letting its fight against Trinamul wane in Bengal.

“Trinamul has a secret entente with the BJP, in order to save its own leaders from the central probe agencies,” he added. “The Left’s integrity, on the other hand, is beyond question.”

CPM farmers’ wing All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) deputy chief Hannan Mollah said there is no discrepancy in the party’s stand.

“The people are not fools. They understand all of this thoroughly,” he said.

“Our fight is to protect the people of India from ruin. Bengal included,” added Mollah.

On Monday, Trinamul national general-secretary Abhishek Banerjee said the CPM was welcome to make its own decisions, but his party would welcome all like-minded parties to unite forces in the fight against the BJP.

The BJP, predictably, responded with criticism.

“The CPM is bellicose in public against the gargantuan corruption in the Trinamul regime, but it shares the same platform with the party nationally. The hypocrisy is not lost on the people of Bengal,” said BJP state chief spokesperson Samik Bhattacharya.