The CPM and the Congress jointly organised a public meeting on Friday for the Dhupguri byelection and urged the electorate to defeat the Trinamul Congress and the BJP.

Bengal CPM secretary Md Salim and state Congress president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury slammed the BJP and Trinamul on a day a meeting of the INDIA partnership was held in Mumbai. The CPM, Congress and Trinamul are constituents of the INDIA to defeat the BJP in the next general election.

Both Adhir and Salim were in Dhupguri to campaign for Ishwar Chandra Roy, the Congress-backed CPM candidate.

“The residents of Dhupguri Assembly seat should focus on the local political situation and vote against Trinamul and the BJP. Leaders of both these parties have indulged in corruption. I believe the voters here should not consider what is happening in Delhi or Mumbai,” Adhir told a public meeting in Dakbungalow ground in Dhupguri.

He criticised the Prime Minister, the Bengal chief minister and Trinamul’s national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee. On Wednesday, Abhishek had a one-to-one meeting with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in Delhi.

“In tea gardens, workers are in a miserable plight. Trinamul has done nothing for this region and only some leaders have made money,” Adhir added.

Salim, whose campaign speech was brief, spoke along the lines of the PCC president when he talked to newspersons.

“As of now, Dhupguri residents need not think about what is happening in Bangalore or Mumbai. They should put in efforts to ensure the defeat of Trinamul and BJP candidates,” said the state secretary of the CPM.

So far, three meetings of the INDIA alliance have been held in Delhi, Bangalore and Mumbai.

Such contrasting stand of these two leaders, especially when Left and Congress leaders joined at the alliance’s meeting in Mumbai with Mamata and underscored the need to work together to oust the BJP, has made both Trinamul and BJP react.

“These leaders are simply indulging in mud-slinging for narrow political interests. Such strategies will not work as at the national level their parties have compulsions to join the INDIA alliance to fight against BJP. In Dhupguri, people will not support them,” said state minister Aroop Biswas, who campaigned in Banarhat today.

Suvendu Adhikari, the leader of the opposition in the Assembly, on the other hand, posted a photo in X (formerly Twitter) where the chief minister was seen interacting with veteran CPM leader Sitaram Yechuri in Malda.

“Sitaram Yechuri has left no space for the CPM candidate of Dhupguri by-poll,” he tweeted.