By IANS
Kolkata : Left Front patriarch Joyti Basu Tuesday said the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) was holding talks with some United Progressive Alliance (UPA) constituents to form a third alternative at the centre.
“We are trying to form a third alternative at the centre before the next election. Our party’s General Secretary Prakash Karat has been given the responsibility to rope in a few associate parties of the Congress so that they could participate in the front,” Basu told reporters after attending the CPI-M state committee meeting here.
He said the modalities of the proposed third front would be chalked out later.
“So far there has been no solution…Let us see,” he added.
Basu said his party did not want the proposed third front to be a mere electoral alliance.
He pointed out that the front should work together and arrive at a political understanding on the policies and programmes.
Earlier, Basu had ruled out the possibility of forming a third front as an alternative to the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the arena of national politics.
He said the rise of the BJP and the electoral setbacks suffered by the Congress had created a complex political situation in India, forcing the CPI-M to support the Congress-led UPA government at the centre.