By Special Correspondent

 New Delhi/Kolkata: Ahead of crucial West Bengal assembly elections, a people’s forum announced on Wednesday that it would launch an anti-fascist campaign with a slogan “No Vote to BJP”. The Forum said it would expose RSS-BJP’s ‘misdeeds’ and make the common man aware of it as saying  the BJP regime at the Center has been ‘undermining and assaulting democratic institutions and secular fabric’ of the country.

Addressing a press conference here, the forum consisting of activists of various people’s movements and secular-progressive groups  said  during the run-up to the upcoming assembly election in the state, it would launch  an anti-fascist drive  and asking people do not give vote to the BJP which is leaving no stones unturned to capture power in West Bengal. The Forum said its activists will be in the public with the slogan of “No Vote to BJP”.

Besides exposing the BJP-RSS, the campaign will put forward a people’s charter of demands, so that people make an informed and effective decision in their own self-interest and decimate the BJP in the ballot box too, the forum said in its press note. The forum sees its “No Vote to BJP” campaign as not an end in itself but only as a part of the ongoing anti-fascist struggle in the country.

Accusing the BJP of working for the interest of crony capitalists mostly from Gujarat state, the Forum recalled the protest against communalised citizenship matrix– CAA-NRC-NPR. The organizers said that they want to revive the momentum of the pre-lockdown period movement against anti- CAA   in the context of the upcoming assembly election before it is too late. They also reflected the sense of urgency by pointing to BJP’s rapidly growing vote-shares in Bengal that has not only established it as the main opposition to TMC in 2019 general election but also increased the violent show of strength by the larger Sangh Parivar outfits both in Kolkata and the districts.

Prior to the press conference, on January 4, activists from Kolkata and various districts of West Bengal, had held a public convention at the Bharat Sabha Hall in central Kolkata to exchange views, and had announced the formation of the forum.

The resolution passed by the convention focused on the very fascist nature of the Narendra Modi regime by highlighting its successive onslaughts on the secular democratic edifice of Indian federal republic by sweeping attacks on the rights of the minorities and systemic subversion of the independent constitutional institutions including judiciary and media. The declaration described such moves as the testimony to the agendas of the crony corporates and the RSS-led majoritarian religious nationalists to fast forward the pluralist polity’s turn towards a one nation-one election-one party-one leader rule.

The peoples’ campaign plans to build district wise anti-fascist networks with the ‘No Vote to BJP’ slogan, in order to spread their campaign across the length and breadth of the state. The forum also announced a people’s rally to be held in Kolkata on March 10. On January 13, the forum will organise a sit-in protest in solidarity with the farmers’ struggle at Delhi borders, at the Moulali crossing in Kolkata, from 2 pm.