The Hindu : CPI(M) won't project anyone as Prime Minister: Surjeet

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Jan 04, 2004

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CPI(M) won't project anyone as Prime Minister: Surjeet

By Our Special Correspondent

CHENNAI JAN. 3. "The Communist Party of India (Marxist) will not project anybody as the prime ministerial candidate in the coming Lok Sabha elections and the issue will be decided only after the elections," the party general secretary, Harkishan Singh Surjeet, said here today.

"It has never been the practice of the CPI(M) to project somebody as the candidate for the post of Prime Minister. In the past also though the party was instrumental in the formation of governments, the issue was decided only after the elections, he said talking to reporters here.

V.P. Singh, Deva Gowda and I.K. Gujral became Prime Ministers without being projected for the post before elections, Mr. Surjeet said. The name of the CPI(M) leader, Jyoti Basu, was suggested for the post in 1996 only after the general elections. Hence it was not an issue at all.

This was clarified by the Congress president, Sonia Gandhi, also. During his meeting with her in Delhi recently she did not raise the issue though the two leaders discussed other poll-related issues.

Admitting that the Congress and the CPI(M) differed on issues such as globalisation and liberalisation, he said it would not affect the possibility of putting up a common candidate against the Bharathiya Janata Party. One could not write off the Congress as it was the major political force in the country whose support was vital to defeat the BJP.

Asked whether policy contradictions among various parties would weaken secular forces fighting the BJP, Mr. Surjeet said such differences were bound to exist in a vast country like India. But the prime task at the moment was how to protect the unity and secular character of the country from the "dangerous communal forces like the BJP."

Referring to West Bengal, Kerala and Tripura, the CPI(M) leader said the question of multi-cornered contests would have no significance in those States as there was no danger of rightist forces winning there.

Listing the steps taken by him to put up a united fight against the BJP, Mr. Surjeet said that consultations were on with Mulayam Singh Yadav, Mayawati, Ajit Singh and Ramvilas Paswan. The Nationalist Congress Party president, Sharad Pawar, was making contradictory statements and it was not possible to negotiate with him at this stage. But he was confident that there would be no difficulty in uniting the secular forces to defeat the BJP.

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