New Delhi: With the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Samajwadi Party ditching the Congress in the Assembly polls in Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh, and the Left parties deciding to form a separate front, the prospect of a “mahagathbandhan” to take on the BJP ahead of the Lok Sabha polls appears to be bleak.
After the BSP, even the SP, whose chief Akhilesh Yadav has been one of the most loyal allies of the Congress, has said it would go alone in these polls.
The CPI(M), which is the largest constituent of the Left Front, said Monday after its central committee meeting that it would maximise efforts to stop the BJP from coming to power and support a formation which would help form an alternative secular dispensation at the Centre in 2019.
“Various parties have various roles in different states. We will take a concrete decision closer to the Lok Sabha polls. But our main task is to defeat the BJP alliance,” CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury told the media. “In the coming Assembly polls, we will fight in as many seats as we have a presence in and we will support whoever is in a better position to defeat the BJP in the rest,” he added.
It may be recalled that the CPI(M) had been in the throes of a debate before the party congress on its political-tactical line and had decided at its party congress that it should be open to any electoral understanding with the Congress in order to keep the BJP out.
Menawhile, the CPI(M), SP, CPI and other smaller Left parties have already formed a front for Rajasthan and is exploring various options in other states.
However, in contrast to this, in Telangana the CPI(M) and the CPI will be fighting on opposite sides, with the CPI having decided to join a TDP-Congress front and the CPI(M) fighting with its Bahujan Left Front.
The same experiment is likely to be repeated in Andhra Pradesh as well.
