CPM hopes to pressurise Congress to back Third Front

New Delhi: As speculation mounts over the formation of the next government, the CPM remains divided over backing a UPA dispensation and is discussing how to pressure the Congress to support a Third-Front-led grouping if its partners get enough seats.

The issues were discussed in detail at an informal meeting of senior Left leaders in Kolkata on Sunday, according to a Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPM) leader who was present.

Spelling out the CPM strategy, party general secretary Prakash Karat said it should be the Congress's turn to support a Third Front government to keep the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) away from power.

"In 2004 we supported the Congress-led government to stop the BJP from coming to power. Now, it is the turn of the Congress to give support to an anti-BJP government," a Left party leader quoted Karat as saying.

Party sources added that the Communists continued to be divided over propping up a Congress government if the Third Front, including Telugu Desam Party (TDP), Biju Janata Dal (BJD), AIADMK and Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S), did not get the numbers.

While Karat is adamant about not doing business with the Congress again and prefers to sit in the opposition, senior leaders Sitaram Yechury and West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee are not averse to supporting a Congress-led government, it is believed.

Party insiders said the majority of the 40-odd seats that the Left was expecting would come from West Bengal and the more pragmatic view of Bhattacharjee and Yechury could prevail over that of Karat.

Asked about CPM leaders from West Bengal talking in favour of a Congress-led government, a senior leader said it was just a strategy to create confusion among Trinamool Congress cadres. The Congress and the Trinamool Congress are contesting elections together in West Bengal.

"It is part of our strategy to confuse the cadres of Trinamool Congress and Mamata Banerjee, who have strongly opposed the idea of a Congress-led government supported by the Left.

"This confusion was created by [Congress General Secretary] Rahul Gandhi. This confusion should prevail till the elections are over in the state," he said.