Kolkata, Jul 6 (PTI) The CPI(M)'s West Bengal unit on Wednesday said that it will fight the panchayat elections due next year with full gusto and create resistance groups in villages to prevent any loot of votes.

CPI(M) state secretary Mohd Salim said the party will soon start campaigning across West Bengal taking up alleged corruption in the local bodies and irregularities in the recruitment of teachers.

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"Resistance groups will be created in villages to prevent any loot of votes in the panchayat elections," Salim said at a press conference at the CPI(M) headquarter here.

He claimed that the Trinamool Congress is attacking the CPI(M) realising that the Left party's narrative is finding acceptance among people.

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"Finding that the CPI(M) is gaining strength, the TMC is training its guns on it instead of the BJP," he said at the end of a two-day state committee meeting of the party.

Salim alleged that an attack on democracy is taking place in the country and that the arrest of social activist Teesta Setalvad and Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair are examples of that.

"An undeclared emergency is prevailing in the country," he said.

He accused both the BJP and the TMC of playing the communal card.

"We have to fight against this communalism. An atmosphere of intolerance is being created," the senior CPI(M) leader said.

Salim claimed that TMC MP Mahua Moitra's controversial comment on Goddess Kali is being highlighted to overshadow the rise in cooking gas prices on Wednesday.

Kicking up controversy at a conclave, Moitra on Tuesday that she had every right as an individual to imagine Goddess Kali as a meat-eating and alcohol-accepting deity, as each person had his or her unique way of offering prayers.

While the BJP demanded her arrest, the TMC distanced itself from the comment.

Salim alleged that though Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had fought over land acquisition, neither the TMC nor the BJP adhere to the Land Acquisition Act of 2013.

He said that locals are fighting against land acquisition attempts in Birbhum district's Deucha Pachami for a coal mining project by the TMC government.

Criticising the intellectuals who had supported the anti-land acquisition movement of Mamata Banerjee in Nandigram in 2007 when the CPI(M)-led Left Front was in power, he asked why they are not raising their voices now.

Salim said that three senior leaders - Left Front chairman Biman Bose, Mridul Dey and Ashok Bhattacharya - were taken as special invitees in the state committee of the CPI(M).

The three are former members of the state committee. They had stepped down from it to make way for fresh blood in the party leadership.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)