By IANS,
Kolkata : The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) Sunday called for establishing a leftist, third front government to rule the country opposed to both the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Recalling that his party, along with three other leftist outfits, had provided outside support to the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government after the 2004 elections, senior CPI-M leader Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee said: “Our only aim then was to prevent the communal BJP from returning to power. We knew if the BJP returned to power, religious fascism will rule the roost”.
“But the UPA government did not pay heed to our pleas not to sign the India-US civil nuclear deal. We told them we will be at the mercy of the US. But they did not listen to us,” said Bhattacharjee, CPI-M politburo member and West Bengal chief minister.
The four Left parties – CPI-M, Communist Party of India (CPI), Forward Bloc and the Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) – withdrew their support to the UPA government mid-last year on the nuclear deal issue.
“We need a third alternative of leftist parties in (New) Delhi. We want neither the BJP nor the Congress. We need a government which will listen to us, follow an independent foreign policy and fight communal forces,” he said.
Bhattacharjee said forming such an alternative was not an easy task and it will take time. “You can’t have such an alternative in a short time. People will form such a government through struggle. We have to motivate the people towards that goal”.
India is slated to hold Lok Sabha polls in April-May this year.