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Left to decide on approach after results

Sandeep Dikshit

To hold an interaction with Third Front allies on Monday

Jayalalithaa, Mayawati to attend May 18 meeting
CPI(M) Polit Bureau to meet on May 18; CPI’s national executive on May 19

NEW DELHI: The Left parties, unfazed by the hectic consultations between erstwhile opponents, will wait for the election results and decide on their approach at a meeting on Sunday.

That meeting will be followed by an interaction with their Third Front allies the next day, which is likely to be attended by most pre-election allies except the Telangana Rashtra Samiti, which has shifted allegiance to the National Democratic Alliance.

Asked whether Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) leader Mayawati and AIADMK general secretary Jayalalithaa would attend the May 18 meeting, Communist Party of India (Marxist) Polit Bureau member S. Ramachandran Pillai told newspersons: “Yes, they will attend.”

This meeting could be shifted to May 19 if this date was more convenient to the Third Front leaders.

However, Left sources were not sure whether Telugu Desam Party chief N. Chandrababu Naidu and Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik would be able to attend due to their preoccupation with the results of the Andhra Pradesh and Orissa Assembly elections. “Mr. Naidu can probably fly in and leave the same day just like he used to during the United Front days. Mr. Patnaik can also do that. But all that depends on the results,” the sources said.

Janata Dal (Secular) leader H.D. Deve Gowda was expected to arrive in the national capital for consultations with the Left leaders on Sunday. But he was unlikely to stay for the May 18 meeting as he wanted to be in Tirupati on his birthday the next day.

“Even H.D. Kumaraswamy told us that despite his meeting Sonia Gandhi, JD(S) will be with the Third Front. Then why should I doubt,” asked Communist Party of India national secretary D. Raja.

The sources said CPI (M) general secretary Prakash Karat met BSP leader Satish Mishra and spoke on the phone with Mr. Naidu and Mr. Patnaik.

Senior leaders of the Mr. Patnaik-led Biju Janata Dal (BJD) and the BSP said they would back a non-Congress, non-Bharatiya Janata Party led government.

“We have already made it clear that we will not join a BJP or Congress-led government. We are awaiting the poll results,” said BJD spokesperson Damodar Rout after consulting Mr. Patnaik and seeking clarifications on reports suggesting that the Congress had opened communication lines with the Orissa Chief Minister.

“The Chief Minister said he received no call from Congress president Sonia Gandhi or any other leader,” he said. The BSP also clarified that its earlier stance of supporting a non-Congress, non-BJP government remained unchanged.

The Left parties would also hold internal consultations. The CPI(M) Polit Bureau is scheduled to meet on May 18 and this will be followed by a meeting of the Central Committee the next day.

The CPI’s national executive was scheduled to meet on May 19, followed by the National Council meeting the next day.

“Congress did little”

Meanwhile, All India Forward Bloc leader Debabrata Biswas wanted to know why there was media speculation that the onus was on the Left parties to support a Congress-led government in the name of secularism.

During the four-and-a-half years of Left support for the United Progressive Alliance, the Congress did little, both politically and administratively, to defend secularism. Instead, it conceded political ground to the BJP and its allies in several States.

The Congress was also unable to implement the Justice Srikrishna report on the Mumbai riots. Neither did it help alleviate the problems of the working class, the mainstay of the Left parties, he pointed out.

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