Formation of a non-Congress and non-BJP government is certain at the Centre, most likely after the 2014 elections, CPI general secretary Suravaram Sudhakar Reddy said here on Thursday. Samajwadi Party leader Mulayam Singh Yadav contacted several parties, including CPI, hinting at third front, for which some felt time was not yet ripe, Mr. Sudhakar Reddy said at a press conference. He, however, said that there was a likelihood of Left parties and several regional parties in different States coming together before or after the elections, as an alternative to the Congress and the BJP to remove the capitalists and corporates’ control over the government. On the possibility of the country facing early elections, the CPI leader felt that the UPA, technically a minority government “which is in ICU” might be able to complete its term by continuing its manipulative game but one more jerk from a partner might see its fall. While sounding confident of a non-Congress and non-BJP government, Mr. Sudhakar Reddy said the major daily newspapers owned by corporate houses were continuously projecting a scenario that the fight would only be between Rahul Gandhi and Narendra Modi.
Both wee two sides of the same coin and neither of them would become Prime Minister, he said.
Power tariff
The agitation against power tariff hike would continue in spite of arrest of leaders and the government must withdraw the increase, demanded Mr. Sudhakar Reddy. The Congress government in the State, like the one at Centre, was in a minority but it imposed an unprecedented burden through power tariff hike on the people. It should learn a lesson from the Telugu Desam government which imposed heavy burden on the people, forcing them to launch an agitation and ultimately lost in the 2004 elections, Mr. Sudhakar Reddy said at a press conference.
Answering a question on the merger of CPI and CPI(M), Mr. Sudhakar Reddy said his party had given a call for reunification of the communist parties while the CPI(M) felt some issues that cropped up at the time of division of the party (when it came out of CPI and formed as CPI-M) remained unsolved. District secretary and national council member J.V. Satyanarayana Murthy and city secretary Pydi Raju were also present.
