West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee. (Press Trust of India file photo)
Accusing West Bengal's ruling Trinamool Congress of corruption, the opposition Left Front today dubbed the Mamata Banerjee government "the prime enemy of the masses".
"Our fight is against the continuous attack on democracy in the state, the attack on the state's secular traditions and beliefs. We have hit the streets to counter the relentless attacks on the common people in the state," Communist Party of India-Marxist state secretary Surjya Kanta Mishra said at a rally in Kolkata.
"This (state) government is corrupt and is the prime enemy of the people of the state," he added.
Later, speaking to media persons, Mr Mishra, who is also Leader of Opposition in the assembly, refused to comment on speculations over the Marxists forging an alliance with the Congress.
On media queries on the possibility of an alliance with the Congress for the 2016 assembly polls, he said: "I don't have the right to make a comment on that."
Hitting back at the Marxists, Trinamool Lok Sabha member Sudip Bandyopadhyay charged the opposition - the CPI-M, Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party - with joining hands in their bid to dismantle the Banerjee government.
"The Marxists who killed innocent people, who killed democracy, are now hitting the streets. If the Trinamool wanted, these people wouldn't have been able to show their faces in the next 25 years," he said at a public meeting.
"It is only because of Mamata Banerjee's tolerance and respect for the opposition... I feel ashamed when the CPI-M leaders say such big words. In their attempt to try and remove Mamata Banerjee, the CPI-M, Congress and the BJP have joined hands but even that will not help them," he claimed.