Left wooing secular UPA, NDA allies

Agencies

New Delhi/Thiruvananthapuram: The Left is seriously working on plans to sew a third alternative ahead of the Lok Sabha polls wooing 'secular' parties in both UPA and NDA, as it indicated it may not support the Congress in the post-poll scenario.

Stating that the Left does not see a situation where it would be forced to support the Congress after the polls, CPI(M) General Secretary Prakash Karat said it was trying to bring some UPA constituents to join a 'secular alternative' to join forces to take on both the Congress and the BJP.

"2009 is not going to be 2004," Karat said in an interview to CPI(M) organ 'Deshabhimani', a Malayalam daily while dismissing chances of the Left supporting the Congress after the polls.

The four Left parties--CPI (M), CPI, RSP and Forward Bloc--have agreed to come out with a joint appeal by mid-March asking secular parties in both UPA and NDA to join forces with a third alternative ahead of the General Elections. The decision was taken at a meeting of the top leaders of the four parties in New Delhi.

RSP General Secretary T J Chandrachudan said the appeal is likely to issue a call to secular forces in NDA which are "perturbed" by the BJP's Hindutva agenda and parties in UPA which are "unhappy" with Congress' "privatised and perished policy".

Claiming that the non-Congress secular alliance has already been forged in most major states, Karat said he was confident that this front would become broad-based and stronger to take on the Congress and BJP.

In Kolkata, CPI(M) patriarch Jyoti Basu said the party had not taken any decision on extending support to the Congress after the elections.

"We cannot say it at this stage. No decision has been taken in the party in this regard," Basu said when asked if the CPI(M) would support to the Congress after poll. Besides Chandrachudan, the New Delhi meeting was attended by Karat, CPI's A B Bardhan, RSP's Abani Roy, and Forward Bloc's Debabrata Biswas and D Deverajan.

Signalling the Left's keenness to exploit the Congress reservation over a national level pre-poll tie-up with its alliance partners, Karat said CPI(M) was keenly watching the emerging scenario after the Congress indicated its stand. "The Congress has said there would not be a UPA in the elections. This signals that the constituents are free to move in tune with the circumstances prevailing in each state. The Left is keenly watching this scenario," Karat said.

After assessing the existing political equations in each state, the Left would take appropriate decisions on relations with the UPA partners, he said. "After the elections, we will come to know who is going to be compelled to support whom," he said.

The Left was trying to bring non-Congress secular parties on common platform centring three core political themes--pro-people economic policies, secularism and independent foreign policy, he added.

"If this strategy proves successful, the result will be a non-Congress, non-BJP government at the Centre," Karat said.