Left to work towards Third Front govt

CPI(M) party congress to discuss third front-led govt in April

In the backdrop of their sharpening attack on the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government's economic policies, the CPI(M) and the CPI today visualised a Third Front led by Left parties and suggested their propping up a Congress-led dispensation could not be a permanent arrangement.

Both the parties, however, appeared to rule out the Third Front as an immediate possibility.

CPI(M) politburo member Prakash Karat told a rally in Malappuram that India did not need a Congress or Bharatiya Janata Party-led government alone and said the party's highest decision-making forum would discuss the possibility of forming a Left-led third alternative in April.

Terming their outside support to the UPA government a "political necessity" for the next five years, CPI General Secretary AB Bardhan said it did not mean it would continue for all time and Left parties would like to have a Third Front as a long-term alternative.

Karat said the CPI(M) "believes this country does not require a Congress-led or BJP-led government alone. Though there is no immediate possibility for a third alternative, our next party the Congress, scheduled to be held in New Delhi in April, will discuss it and work towards that."

Karat said the CPI(M) had basic differences with the Congress. "Ever since Independence, the Congress has been a party that served only capitalists and big landlords. But our party, representing the working class and peasants, cannot agree with the policies of the Congress," he said.

The Left had decided to extend outside support to a Congress-led government, respecting the people's verdict in the last Lok Sabha elections, Karat said,

Both Karat and Bardhan said support to the UPA government would continue only if the Congress stuck to the common minimum programme.

Bardhan said: "We are now only an important factor. We would like to become more decisive factor. This is what we mean by a Left and democratic alternative".

Asked whether the idea of Third Front was in the backdrop of Left parties' growing criticism of the UPA government's economic policies, Bardhan said: No, it is not in that sense. Not as a replacement but as a perspective."

"After all we do not want to stick to the formula of the UPA ruling and the Left supporting. That is a static formula. The UPA is not a permanent feature and a transitional phase. There might be some other transitional phases. We will see to it," the CPI general secretary said.

Asked to name the parties that would form the proposed alternative beside the Left parties, he said: "They may be the Rashtriya Janata Dal, the DMK, the Samajwadi Party and so forth and there might be other regional groups and parties".

Asked whether the Telegu Desam Party would be part of it, Bardhan said "may be if there is realignment of forces in coming years. The TDP, for instance, has to give up its old economic understanding because it was much more to the right".