Yechury says BJP sharpening communal divide ahead of 2024 general elections

Kolkata: CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury on Wednesday alleged that the BJP is sharpening communal polarisation as the 2024 general elections approach.

He said that clashes between groups of people have been witnessed during the Ram Navami celebrations in some parts of the country.

"As 2024 (Lok Sabha elections) approaches, sharpening communal polarisation has become mainstay for the BJP for its electoral and political mobilisation," Yechury said at a press conference here.

Stating that there is no history of clashes during the Ramnavami celebrations in the past in many of the places where they occurred, the CPM leader claimed that it was engineered.

The CPM leader said that the anti-BJP forces in the country have to unite to make sure that the saffron party does not continue to control the reins of the government and state power.

Yechury said that post the general elections next year, the actual formation of an anti-BJP alliance will take shape.

He claimed that this combine will form the next government, replacing the BJP-led NDA.

The CPM leader said each state has its specific political alignments, but the idea is to maximise pooling of the anti-BJP forces.

"Both in 1996 and 2004, alliances were formed after the elections," he said.

He pointed out that the CPM supported the Manmohan Singh government in 2004 despite having fought the Congress in three states West Bengal, Kerala and Tripura.

He said that the CPM has decided to continue to talk with all the secular, democratic opposition parties.

"The effort would be, in the coming 2024 elections, in every state to maximise the pooling of patriotic and secular opposition forces so that the BJP cannot take advantage of a division in the opposition," he said.

Asked about the possibility of Mamata Banerjee-led ruling party in Bengal being in it, the CPM leader claimed that the Trinamool Congress' credibility as an anti-BJP force has "always been questionable."

Claiming that politics is not just about arithmetic and adding numbers, he said that it has to be seen who is a consistent ally.

"If the entire purpose of the Trinamool and the BJP is to isolate the Left and the Congress and the other secular forces, then the point is what in the future they will do together," he asked.

In the past a number of opposition parties uch as DMK, the Left, RJD, JD(U) and NCP have held meetings to forge an understanding ahead of the 2024 general elections. However, the Trinamool Congress at that time had indicated it would like to remain equidistant from both the Congress and BJP.

Nevertheless, after Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's disqualification, the TMC Supremo Mamata Banerjee tweeted her condemnation and the party started sending its representative to various opposition programs.

Yechury termed as "peculiar" the Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's assertion that if their lives "are difficult or made difficult with the support of the State", would the Indian Muslim population be growing.

"This very argument is completely unacceptable," he said.

The Left leader claimed that the real wages in India have remained stagnant over the last eight years of the Narendra Modi government.

"With inflation soaring, if the real wages are stagnant, that means people's consumption are declining, which means poverty levels are increasing," he said.

Yechury claimed that in the last 10 years, two India's have emerged - shining India and suffering India, with the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer.

Alleging misuse of the ED, CBI and governors, he also claimed that the democratic system in the country is being destroyed.