No difference with somnath on ideology: Yechury

KOLKATA: CPM politburo member Sitaram Yechury said on Friday that "this is election time and Somnath Chatterjee's inclusion in the party is not an issue which we could discuss right now." Asked how Goutam Deb could seek Chatterjee's help to campaign for him, Yechury said, "We have appealed to all to campaign for us in this election and Chatterjee was one of them. Chatterjee has responded positively to Deb and we have no objection if he campaigns for us."

"After all, we have no difference with Chatterjee as far as our political ideologies are concerned. But, this is not a time when we could discuss the issue of his inclusion into the party,"Yechury clarified. Speculation was rife about Chatterjee's being reinducted in the CPM after West Bengal housing minister Goutam Deb, on Thursday, told reporters in Siliguri that Chatterjee will campaign for him in Dum Dum on April 24.

But, Yechury made it clear that the party will not discuss the issue immediately. Refuting Mamata Banerjee's allegation that CPM and BJP had joined hands to extract political mileage against the Trinamool Congress , the CPM politburo member and Rajya Sabha MP from the state said that "the Trinamool chief had worked in the previous BJP-led NDA government as their minister. Her party still maintain links with the BJP." "Trinamool Congress candidate for the Khardah seat, Amit Mitra, had campaigned for Narendra Modi abroad. Now, he is a Trinamool candidate here," the CPM leader said.