CPI(M) to review support to UPA

The CPI(M) has decided to review its decision to extend support to the UPA government at the Centre.

The 'cost-and-benefit' analysis of outside support to the UPA government, done at the three-day CPI(M) Politburo and Central Committee meetings that concluded on Monday, does not bode well for the UPA regime and the period after the UP Assembly elections could be a crucial period for the government.

The highest decision making bodies of the Left party are of the opinion that continued association with the UPA regime could be inimical to the long-term interest of the party, according to highly placed sources in the CPI(M).

The CPI(M) analysis is that the Congress is losing ground across the country as is evident from the results of the recent Assembly elections in Punjab and Uttaranchal and the municipal elections in Maharashtra.

In UP also, the CPI(M) sees little chance for the Congress. The prospects in Delhi looked equally bleak, so did those in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh.

"We extended support to Congress to keep the BJP at bay, but the Congress-led government's policies are ensuring the resurgence of communal forces in one state after another. We never made any commitment to keep them (UPA) in power for five years. We will take a decision on it after the UP election," a Politburo member said.

Sources said the Left party did not want to share with the Congress the cost of anti-incumbency factor that the UPA ally believed was catching up with the UPA much sooner than expected.

The post-UP election period also becomes crucial on account of the Presidential election "" the Left is determined to support a non-Congress, non-BJP candidate "" as also the Indo-US nuclear deal that will be in its final stage at that time, according to sources.

The CPI(M) has also been under pressure from its Left allies to pull the carpet from under the UPA's feet. An RSP delegation had recently met CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat asking him for how long they should support a regime which pursued everything that the Left opposed.

CPI(M) sources, however, added that the party was yet to take any final view on this issue as it does not see any alternative.