A subtle nudge from the Left to the Congress has now become an open push.
CPI general secretary A.B. Bardhan on Saturday said the party would have no qualms taking support from the Congress for a possible alternative government, echoing what CPM chief Prakash Karat has already said.
The Left’s change in stance is now clear as daylight. The alternative government it is planning to foist cannot be a Congress-led one, but it can be a Congress-supported one.
However, here is what the two Left leaders are not willing to concede: the third alternative may well fall short of the magic number. So, the Left is goading the Congress to support a possible third front government to keep the BJP out.
“Why should we decline if Congress agrees to support us but let me make it clear that we will not support the Congress,” Bardhan said, releasing the CPI’s manifesto.
Like the CPM, the catchphrase of the CPI manifesto is an alternative, secular government that will shun the Congress’s neo-liberal economic policies and pro-US tilt, and the BJP’s “communalism”.
“If these polices are acceptable to the Congress, let them support us,” Bardhan said.