Trouble started as Siddiqui took the stage when Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, MP and Congress President for West Bengal, was delivering his speech.
Chowdhury was halted by Left leaders who wanted to announce Siddiqui’s entry. Live footage from the stage shows Chowdhury first refusing to stop his speech, then denying to continue it, and finally agreeing to finish it on the insistence of Bose.
Thereafter, when Siddiqui took to the stage, he asked his supporters to vote for the Left only, with no mention of the Congress.
“I want to tell all those who love me from the Brigade Ground here, that wherever the Left Front puts up candidates, we will guard our motherland with our blood. We will oust the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its B-team the Trinamool Congress (TMC)”, said Siddiqui.
He subsequently explained his stance.
Earlier the Congress Bengal unit had written to the national leadership to approve a seat-sharing arrangement with Siddiqui’s ISF. However, even though Siddiqui has negotiated…