Rahul signals no pact with Left

Aditi Tandon

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, February 9

In the first major signal of the Congress not allying with the Left for the upcoming West Bengal elections, party vice-president Rahul Gandhi termed the red brigade obsolete saying it’s not up to the times that demand flexibility and progress.

Addressing a gathering in Kerala where the Congress will be fighting the Left Front in the Assembly elections, Rahul openly targeted the Left saying: “The ideology that the Left believes in is obsolete. It is the ideology of the past century…Kerala cannot do without industrial growth and economic progress. Kerala cannot build its future using the vision of the last century.”

In Delhi, top Congress leaders read Rahul’s statement as “significant” given the uncertainty around alliance talks in Bengal where the Gandhi scion personally believes going with the TMC would be a better long-term option.