Party general secretary Sitaram Yechury claimed the prime minister was seeking to convert India's parliamentary system into a presidential form of government, and charged the Centre with "undermining" the constitutional structure of parliamentary democracy.
"Every move that is being conceived of and is being initiated by the government is undermining the constitutional structure of parliamentary democracy," he said, pointing to state election schedules and moves for simultaneous central and state polls.
"This is precisely what the current prime minister wishes to do -- convert the parliamentary system into a presidential form. The blatant misuse of constitutional bodies is to systematically undermine the very Constitution of our country," he told reporters here.
"These are the signs of the prime minister moving towards a very autocratic rule," he added.
Yechury appealed to the non-BJP chief ministers to come together to protect the country's federal structure.
"Earlier our demand was to strengthen Centre-state relations, but now we have reached a stage where one has to protect what we have," he said.
"We have no problem with anybody investigating. But law and order is a state subject. That is the essence of the federal structure. If the state police is doing its job, then the purpose of a CBI intervention is to undermine the state's rights and misuse the CBI for political interests," he said.
These issues would be discussed at the Opposition coordination committee meet to chalk out floor coordination during the next Parliament session, he said.
Asked why the Opposition had not organised a joint protest, he said, "The Left parties have always believed in marching separately and striking together".
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