A section of the CPI-M blames bungling of Buddha govt on Darjeeling Hills for poll debacle

SILIGURI, 25 NOV: The introspective exercise of the CPI-M has thrown the party’s Darjeeling district committee into a fresh controversy. A section of the CPI-M leadership today blamed the mishandling of the Darjeeling Hills turmoil by the Buddhadeb Bhattacherjee government for the party’s poor performance in Siliguri and its adjoining areas in the last Assembly poll.
Addressing the Press today, the re-elected secretary of the CPI-M Siliguri zonal committee, Mr Mukul Sengupta, said the bungling by the previous state government in the Hills had adversely impacted the election result in the plains. “We have failed to convince the electorate of the efficacy of the stance taken by the previous state government on the sensitive issue. The common people rejected us because the indecisiveness on the part of the previous state government failed to carry conviction with them. Had the state government taken some decisive measures to solve the logjam in the Hills, the result might not have been as disastrous as it turned out,” Mr Sengupta said.
Referring to the defeat of the former state urban development minister, Mr Asok Bhattacharya, he said that the people had vented their anger against the dragging tension and resultant disruption of life due to a series of bandhs both in the Hills and the plains. “Even those who are traditionally Left sympathisers rejected us outright because of our government’s failure to take an unequivocal and resolute stance on the emotive Gorkhaland issue,” Mr Sengupta said.
Mr Asok Bhattacharya sounded philosophical when he was asked to comment on the matter. “Decline follows growth in sync with the inexorable law of evolution. No organisation can remain immune to what is inevitable. We must accept the dribbling with grace and find out ways to rejuvenate it. Plucking loopholes in course of churning is good,” the former minister said.
SNS