Karat clarifies ‘PM from LS’ remark

The Left on Monday clarified that CPM chief Prakash Karat’s remark to a TV channel had nothing to do with either Prime Minister Manmohan Singh or the Congress. Karat had said that the prime minister should be from Lok Sabha. Zia Haq reports.

The Left on Monday clarified that CPM chief Prakash Karat’s remark to a TV channel had nothing to do with either Prime Minister Manmohan Singh or the Congress. Karat had said that the prime minister should be from Lok Sabha.

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“It was in the specific context of selecting a PM for the third front. I said we will select a leader from the Lok Sabha,” Karat told Hindustan Times.

The CPI backed Karat’s opinion, saying a prime minister from Lok Sabha was “better”.

CPI leader D. Sudhakar Reddy said it was better to have an elected member as prime minister but sought to distance the Left stand from the BJP’s. “The BJP has an anxiety to make personal attacks on Manmohan Singh. We feel in a democracy like India, ideally the PM should be an elected member. But it is not a conditionality,” he said.

The CPI has also said Karat’s remark should not be misinterpreted as any condition for support to the Congress. “It will be ridiculous to think so. Our issue is not about the Congress’s prime ministerial candidate but its policies on the whole,” CPI national secretary D. Raja said.

Karat discussed the likely post-poll scenario with TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu in Hyderabad on Monday.