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A warning to secular parties, says Karat

Special Correspondent

Prakash Karat

Kolkata: One aspect of the Karnataka Assembly election was the “opportunistic alliance” of the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Janata Dal (Secular), and this would be looked into — along with other issues — when the leadership of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) gets to analyse the outcome of the polls, the party’s general secretary, Prakash Karat, said here on Monday.

“There are various aspects to the results that we will have to see; the Janata Dal (Secular) had also got into an opportunistic alliance with them earlier,” Mr. Karat said, asked for his comments on the BJP victory in Karnataka.

Mr. Karat was in the city to attend the meeting of the CPI(M)’s State Committee.

The outcome sends out a warning to those secular parties who, in the interest of forming a government, go in for an electoral understanding with the BJP, Mr. Karat said.

In a report published in the day’s edition of Ganashakti, party organ in West Bengal, Mr. Karat said that for long the BJP had been trying to polarise the people along communal lines and had succeeded in weakening the secular forces in Karnataka.

The poll results also reflected the loss of credibility of the Congress and were a comment on the performance of the United Progressive Alliance government at the Centre, Mr. Karat said.

The Centre’s polices, particularly in regard to price rise and the crisis in the agriculture sector, have led to resentment among the people who have rejected the Congress, he said.

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