The Communist Party of India (CPI) on Thursday made out a case for having a “strong Left block” in the next Lok Sabha to play a key role in the formation of a non-Congress, non-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) post-poll alliance.
With this end in view, the party will enter into State-specific alliances and seat adjustments. However, the party’s central leadership maintained that Wednesday’s Convention Against Communalism – which brought together 14 political parties – was not an attempt to forge a new alliance.
“We needed to create a discourse on secularism and our attempt was to bring together at least one party from every major State so as to build a narrative against the dangers posed by communalism across the country,” CPI general secretary S. Sudhakar Reddy told media persons here.
Meanwhile, the editorial in the next issue of the CPI (M)’s party organ People’s Democracy said contrary to speculation that the convention would announce the formation of a non-Congress, non-BJP political alternative, the participants made it absolutely clear that the primary objective was to “strengthen people’s unity against communalism which poses a grave threat to our future itself”. While CPI (M) general secretary Prakash Karat had in an earlier article suggested a possible realignment as a by-product of the anti-communalism convention, Left parties maintain that whatever emerges should not be called a “third front” because of the negative perception associated with the term.
Atul Anjaan, CPI’s National Council secretary, categorically said the term “third front” had been trashed for good because it had become “much maligned” and “non-Congress, non-BJP alternative” is the new formulation.
However, he admitted that should such an alternative emerge, the constituents would have to find a less unwieldy formulation, even as CPI (M) leaders have repeatedly stressed the need for such a coalition to be driven by policy and not elections. Describing the convention as “hugely successful”, the CPI (M) said it gave a “clear and unambiguous call for protecting the secular democratic character of the Indian Republic from the relentless assaults that are being mounted by the communal forces, as the essential prerequisite for an alternative policy trajectory necessary for the progress of the country and the well-being of the people”.
Stating that more parties and groups had expressed their desire to be associated with this campaign, the CPI(M) said the presence of the Nationalist Congress Party – a United Progressive Alliance constituent – is a clear enough indication that the list of parties who participated on Wednesday is not a “closed” one and “will most likely enlarge significantly in the future.”
