Stopping short of withdrawing support, the Left parties on Thursday said they will take a harder stand against the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government and mobilise smaller UPA partners to launch a campaign against its 'anti-people' policies.

"We will make clear our stand on the economic and foreign issues to the government at the February 13 Coordination Committee meeting. If the Common Minimum Programme is violated, we will take up the issues both inside and outside Parliament," Forward Bloc General Secretary Debabrata Biswas said.

Biswas held a meeting with his Communist Party of India-Marxist counterpart Prakash Karat on the sidelines of the CPI-M Politburo meeting to discuss the stand of the Left parties.

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"We have told the government repeatedly that we are not against modernisation of airports. But what we are opposing is its bid to hand the airports to private hands. The government must answer why it has rejected the proposal for modernisation of airports by AAI, " he said.

The Left parties will also raise in Parliament the government's unilateral decision to vote against Iran at International Atomic Energy Association.

To a question, he said the Left parties had already got in touch with UPA partners like the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and the Rashtriya Janata Dal to raise the contentious economic issues, like privatisation of airports, among the people for a popular campaign.

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"The UPA does not only belong to the Congress. We have already garnered support from the DMK, RJD and the UPA supporter Samajwadi party for an agitation against visit of US President George Bush [Images] to India. We will initiate similar measures in opposing the government's anti-people economic policies in future, " he said.

He, however, categorically denied that there were any talks within the Left parties for withdrawing support to the government, saying, "Such questions were never raised. We decided to support this government on certain issues enshrined in the CMP.

"We knew what is its character and what kind of expectation can we have from it. We will continue to support it at the same time we will carry on a unified Left movement against its anti-people policies, " he said.