The Hindu : Sonia meets Surjeet, calls up Karunanidhi

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Dec 31, 2003

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Sonia meets Surjeet, calls up Karunanidhi

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI DEC. 30. The Congress president, Sonia Gandhi, today met the Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader, Harkishan Singh Surjeet, and spoke to the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam chief, M. Karunanidhi, as part of efforts to form a secular alliance.

However, Ms. Gandhi's call given in Aligarh earlier this month to all secular forces to join hands, indicating a willingness to enter into a pre-poll alliance, did not seem to have found favour.

In the first step towards converting her appeal into reality, Ms. Gandhi called on Mr. Surjeet today to elicit his views on the proposed alliance. During the 45-minute meeting, Mr. Surjeet said the Congress plan of forging a single platform by bringing together all anti-BJP forces might not be possible even though they shared the basic objective of defeating the BJP.

He suggested that the Congress and its allies and the Left parties and their allies work in coordination. "Let us work in the same direction based on the objective, but have separate identities," Mr. Surjeet said. The thrust was that the parties work in a spirit of cooperation rather than confrontation.

Incidentally, Ms. Gandhi's meeting with Mr. Surjeet follows her interaction with the CPI general secretary, A.B. Bardhan, last week. Mr. Surjeet said the discussion was healthy and held in a cordial atmosphere. He told her that there were serious differences between the Left parties and their allies and the Congress on many issues, such as economic policies.

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