The Left parties on Sunday deferred till May 26 a decision on the Congress' offer to veteran Communist Party of India-Marxist leader Somnath Chatterjee to take up the Lok Sabha speaker's post.
Four Left parties -- the CPI-M, CPI, All India Forward Bloc and the Revolutionary Socialist Party -- met after some CPI-M politburo members discussed the issue in the morning, but failed to arrive at a decision.
After the meeting, CPI-M general secretary Harkishan Singh Surjeet said all aspects of the issue were discussed.
"There is a need for more discussion. The entire Left is united on the issue," he said.
CPI general secretary A B Bardhan said all the parties would meet again on May 26 to take a decision.
On the Common Minimum Programme, they said though there was a broad agreement on the draft document, there were several other issues they wanted to stress.
Among those who attended the meeting were Sitaram Yechury, Prakash Karat (both CPI-M), D Raja (CPI), Abani Roy (RSP), and Debabrata Biswas and G Devarajan (AIFB).
Surjeet said the Left's views on the CMP would be put down in black and white and sent to the Congress for finalisation.
"The CMP draft gives a good basis for discussion. There are some things that need to be changed in the first draft," Bardhan said.
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