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Congress will form next govt: Basu

Communist Party of India-Marxist Politburo member Jyoti Basu today reiterated that the Vajpayee government would lose the confidence vote in Parliament and the Congress would form the new government.

''I have been saying right from the beginning that the Congress should form the government with support from secular parties. The Vajpayee government will definitely fall and the Congress will form the new government,'' Basu told reporters in Calcutta.

Asked whether Jayalalitha's AIADMK would join the Congress-led coalition government, he said, ''some parties would join the government and some would support it from outside.''

''Our stand is clear,'' Basu, the longest serving chief minister of the country, said. The CPI-M has said since its Calcutta party congress that it would give issue based support to a Congress-led government from outside if the Vajpayee government falls.

The Bengal chief minister said his party would always like the DMK to be a part of the Third Front and ensure the downfall of the BJP-led government. ''But it is up to them to decide,'' he said.

The CPI=M's partners in the Left Front, the Revolutionary Socialist Party and the All India Forward Bloc, have already decided not to support a Congress-led government.

''Our policy is to maintain equi-distance from both the BJP and the Congress,'' a spokesman of the two parties said. The AIFB and RSP, who have also decided to vote against the confidence motion, have criticised the CPI and CPI-M for ''ditching'' the DMK and Tamil Maanila Congress. "The CPI and CPI-M are determined to install a Congress-led government at the Centre with the AIADMK's help," they said.

UNI

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