Left may ally with Congress after polls: Buddhadeb

West Bengal Chief Minister and senior CPI(M) leader Buddhadeb Bhattacharya has not ruled out the possibility of the Left parties working with Congress again if the situation warrants after the Lok Sabha polls.     

"We are not committing anything.... After elections, when the situation will arise, we will discuss on the concrete situation at that time," he said when asked whether Left parties could again "ally" with the Congress to keep BJP out if the situation demands.      

He told CNN-IBN that the Left parties at present are "busy with the task to defeat both the Congress and the BJP."     

Asked whether Left parties, like in 2004, would again remain out of government if they get a chance to be part of it, Bhattacharya said "History does not repeat itself. What happened in 2004, I don't think its going to get repeated again."   

He referred to 1996 when the Left parties rejected the idea of Jyoti Basu becoming the Prime Minister and said "we discussed and decided that if situation demands and if we can play a meaningful role in the Government, then we have to think over and we may join this Government."   

On Congress, the CPI(M) leader said the Left parties had no problem with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as an individual but were opposed to his policies.