With the Congress facing a series of poll reverses in various states, the four Left parties are planning to have a re-look at their ties with the ruling party in view of the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.
Top leaders of Communist Party of India-Marxist, CPI, Revolutionary Socialist Party and Forward Bloc are expected to meet in the third week of this month to devise a common stand the four parties should have vis-a-vis the Congress in view of the elections.
At the meeting, the four parties will also discuss ways to resolve their inter-party wranglings and strengthen their unity further.
"Normally, the Left parties hold deliberations only on specific issues like the nuclear deal or price rise. But the upcoming meeting will discuss what stand the Left parties should have vis-a-vis the government and elections," Forward Bloc secretary G Devarajan told PTI.
He said the meeting will deliberate on the overall relationship between the Congress-led government and the Left parties in view of the ruling coalition "fast losing ground due to its anti-people policies."
"The Left parties have to take note of people's anger against the government. We cannot turn a blind eye towards people's aspirations," he said.
The RSP's decision to quit the United Progressive Alliance-Left coordination committee and its call to other Left parties to reconsider continuance of support are also expected to come up at the meeting.
The Forward Bloc is not happy with the RSP taking a unilateral decision, but will demand a discussion on the latter's suggestion that it was "high time to withdraw support to the UPA government."
Acknowledging that the RSP has the right to take an independent stand on any issue, the Forward Bloc leader said the impact would have been "far more" if all the four Left parties had collectively decided on what to do about continuance in the coordination committee.
"It was a collective decision to join the (UPA-Left) coordination committee. It would have been better if the withdrawal was also a collective decision," Devarajan said.
In this context, he cited the example of CPI agreeing with the other Left parties not to join the UPA government despite its national executive and national committee giving a green signal to do so.
Devarajan pointed out that the Left parties had started coordinating in largescale at the national level only after 2004 following the UPA government formation.
"But this unity has not gone down to the ground level. We need to improve that and the meeting will try to address this issue," he said.
While the four parties have largely been having coordinated approach at the national level, they have been often involved in bickerings at state level in West Bengal and Kerala.
