The Left parties will announce their stand on the upcoming Presidential election only after the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party announce the names of their choices for Presidential candidates, said senior Communist Party of India (CPI) leader and MP Gurudas Dasgupta here on Tuesday.
“The Left parties will announce their stand when the situation becomes clear at the national level. The two principal political parties — the Congress and the BJP — have not spoken out about their choice for the post of President,” Mr. Dasgupta told The Hindu .
Mr. Dasgupta's remarks come on the eve of the meeting of the Left's central leadership — the Communist party of India (Marxist), the Communist Party of India, the Forward Bloc and the Revolutionary Socialist Party — in New Delhi, where they are likely to discuss the issue.
He said the decision on the Presidential elections will be taken “collectively” by the Left parties.
“The Left parties will sit together and decide on their stand. It will not be decided alone by the CPI, the CPI(M) or any other Left party. We have not decided anything,” Mr. Dasgupta told journalists earlier in the day.
Asked about the lobbying by certain political parties in favour of the former Lok Sabha Speaker, P.A. Sangma, Mr. Dasgupta said the Left parties would not be swayed by such attempts. “We are totally immune to any such thing but lobbying now has become a part of Indian politics.”
