The Hindu : National : Left parties will play a crucial role, says CPI

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Saturday, May 01, 2004

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National

Left parties will play a crucial role, says CPI

By Our Staff Reporter

THANJAVUR, APRIL 30. Left parties will play a crucial, decisive role in the formation of a secular coalition Government at the Centre after the Lok Sabha elections, A.B. Bardhan, CPI general secretary, said here today.

They would get more seats than in the previous elections. "We hope to get 60 seats this time," Mr. Bardhan said and added that the left would be a motivating factor in the formation of the Government.

"We would like to involve all the non-National Democratic Alliance (NDA) parties in the formation of a secular Government. No one would be excluded," he said.

The CPI was convinced that the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister, Mulayam Singh Yadav, and his Samajwadi Party (SP) would certainly associate themselves with the new Government.

He said that he had visited eight states and his assessment was that the BJP was going to lose badly. They would not touch even the half-way mark, he felt. The BJP's decline was visible in Orissa, Jharkhand, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh.

He said that in Tamil Nadu the Democratic Progessive Alliance (DPA) forged by the DMK, the Congress and the Left would sweep the polls.

The BJP might gain marginally in Karnataka, Assam, most of the north-eastern states and its ally could gain a few seats in Punjab, he said. According to him, in Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Gujarat, the BJP had already reached its saturation point.

Mr. Bardhan said the BJP, which was once talking about getting 300 seats, was now on the defensive. "Atal Bihari Vajpayee is now talking about ideological similarities with the Samajwadi Party and issuing certificates to the DMK. He is talking about getting new allies. These tactics would not work."

Describing the DMK leader, M. Karunanidhi as a statesman, he said that he (Karunanidhi) had played a positive role in forging a secular alliance in Tamil Nadu.

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