By NNN-PTI,
Banglore, India : The coming together of the Left parties, JDS and others is to offer an alternative that was essentially “non-Congress and non-BJP”, senior CPI-M leader Sitaram Yechury said here today.
“The coming together is to present an alternative to the people,” he said while refusing to dub it as the emergence of a “third front”.
The objective is to raise the issue of inflation, agrarian distress, farmer’s suicide, nuke deal and trend of using official bodies to achieve political goals, he said.
On the Congress being now free to go about their reform agenda with the Left withdrawing outside support, he said, it would have to enlist the help of BJP in the matter.
“This means they (Congress) will be undermining the basis for which the UPA was formed; that of keeping communal forces at bay and pursuing a common minimum programme”.
By pushing for the reform agenda, the Congress would be “betraying and compromising on their objectives”, he said.
On the future of the Indo-US nuclear deal, he said that “if the deal gets through” it would be a case of a “lame duck administration in US and a minority government in India who engineered a majority through various means”.
Replying to query on impact on the CPM’s prospects in the upcoming polls, he said people have come to recognise the party’s contribution in fighting various issues and this would help it garner more votes.