Noting that both ruling UPA and opposition NDA had been "weakened" as manifested in the way they dealt with the presidential poll, party General Secretary Prakash Karat said it was "necessary to utilise the conflicts and fissures within the ruling alliance between the bourgeois parties. Abstention at this juncture will not help in this regard."
Karat's views in an article in the forthcoming issue of party organ 'People's Democracy' came close on the heels of the expulsion of a youth leader, Prasenjit Bose, who had protested CPI(M)'s support to Mukherjee saying it as a "grave error which will harm the party and disturb Left unity."
The article also came in the wake of some Left parties like CPI, RSP and CPI-ML (Liberation), deciding to abstain from voting in the Presidential poll.
"Abstention in this case would mean lining up with Mamata Banerjee and Trinamool Congress in West Bengal. This would be politically damaging and unacceptable. ... It would (also) blunt the intervention of the party in the developing political scenario," Karat said.
Observing that CPI(M) and other Left parties had been weakened since 2009, he said no illusions should be harboured that "the ruling classes will cease their hostile approach" against the Left, given their "unremitting position" against neo-liberal policies.
Predicting a "renewed push" for neo-liberal reforms that "the big business and international finance capital are clamouring for", he said CPI(M) would like all opposition parties to take a united stand on these issues. (More)
