We are not fighting together with BJP: Left

The Left parties, who have called for a nationwide shutdown Monday against the fuel price hike, Sunday asserted they were not fighting together with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which has also called for a Bharat Bandh on the same day.

The Left parties, who have called for a nationwide shutdown Monday against the fuel price hike, Sunday asserted they were not fighting together with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which has also called for a Bharat Bandh on the same day.

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"It is the Congress' strategy to brand that the Left parties and the BJP are fighting together against their government. It is not true. The Left has given call for the shutdown separately," senior Left leader S. Sudhakar Reddy said.

He said the BJP and the National Democratic Alliance it leads had separately called for a strike.

Earlier Sunday, veteran BJP leader L.K. Advani said that this was for the first time so many of political parties were coming together to call a Bharat Bandh.

"We are not fighting together. It is true that we are fighting against the fuel price hike and price rise but separately," Reddy, who is the deputy general secretary of the Communist Party of India (CPI), said.

He said that even the partners in the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government like Trinamool Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party have opposed the fuel price hike.

Asked whether the Left would join hands with the BJP in future to fight the wrong policies of the UPA government, he replied with a categorical "No," but added that the political parties, cutting across party lines, were concerned over the fuel price hike and spiralling prices of essential commodities.

"It is the political parties' responsibility to express the popular resentment," Reddy said.