Top leadership of the Communist Party of India-Marxist on Thursday met to firm up its strategy for the Presidential poll ahead of the Left parties meeting in New Delhi amidst indications that the party is mulling either to support United Progressive Alliance candidate Pranab Mukherjee or abstain from the July 19 poll.
Communist Party of India-Marxist general secretary Prakash Karat on Saturday said his party has not taken any decision yet to ask Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee to quit office. "No, that is not correct. There is no such decision as yet," Karat told PTI over phone when asked whether the party has asked Chatterjee to step down and that he would quit on Monday.
In an exclusive column to Rediff.com, CPI-M general secretary Prakash Karat explains what is wrong with the Union Budget 2011-12 that Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee presented in Parliament on Monday.
Former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mulayam Singh Yadav, along with Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh, had a fifteen minute meeting with Karat at the CPI-M headquarters on Thursday morning.
Karat admits that creation of the Third Front was a wrong move.
'The BJP's economic policy narrowed the employment potential. Go to any urban area, you will see closed \n\nfactories. The small sector belongs to the middle class, and their future is ruined,' says CPI-M leader Prakash \n\nKarat.
In a significant move, the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazagham and the Communist Party of India-Marxist on Friday jointly announced that they have formed an alliance for next year's Lok Sabha elections.
CPI-M general secretary Prakash Karat points out that states like Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh have imposed a formal ban on the Naxalite organisations long ago. "But has the situation improved there? Their situation is similar to that of West Bengal," Karat told Business Standard.
'Manik Sarkar may have been able to hang on if he hadn't been a follower of the CPI-M's all-time hardliner Prakash Karat,' argues Amulya Ganguli.
He was unanimously elected the new general secretary of the party.
Karat has said they will issue a statement on the resignation soon.
Congress president and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, who has always played a key role in defusing tensions with the Left, were also present at the crucial meeting.
Ahead of the crucial Left-United Progressive Alliance committee meeting in Delhi on Friday on the Indo-US nuclear deal, the outside supporters of the Centre, after allowing the government to approach the International Atomic Energy Agency, on Thursday said they did not want the agreement to be operationalised at any cost.
Shiv Sena described Communist Party of India-Marxist General Secretary Sitaram Yechury as the "captain of a sinking ship".
Making it clear that the Left was not prepared to back down on the issue, Bardhan said it was up to the government to decide whether it wanted to continue or commit sati on the issue.
Communist Party of India-Marxist on Thursday urged President Pranab Mukherjee to decide whether West Bengal Governor M K Narayanan's "political interventions" in seeking an apology from the party politburo for the Delhi incident, involving Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, was justified.
Condemning the Hyderabad blasts, the Left parties on Friday warned against any "preconceived notions" about probable culprits or attempts to communalise the incident, saying several innocents have been imprisoned wrongly and released later in earlier cases.
Doctors said his condition was "critical but stable."
Is the CPI-M willing to acknowledge that its cadres were involved in the violent incidents in Nandigram?
The CPI-M elects a new general secretary to replace Prakash Karat who steps down after three terms.
Congress rebel Jaganmohan Reddy's mother Vijayamma on Thursday met leaders of political parties seeking their support in her campaign against the alleged harassment of her jailed son and complained to Chief Vigilance Commissioner about the "ulterior motive" of CBI in the case.
The Communist Party of India (Marxist) on Monday justified its support to United Progessive Alliance Presidential poll nominee Pranab Mukherjee, saying abstention would have not only meant "lining up" with Trinamool Congress but also blunted its intervention in the emerging political scenario.
Stepping up her campaign for former Lok Sabha speaker P A Sangma's candidature for Presidency, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam supremo Jayalalithaa on Sunday contacted top leaders of several non-Congress parties including Bharatiya Janata Party veteran L K Advani, seeking their support to the tribal leader.
The Left parties on Sunday announced a 12-hour all-India general strike on September 20 to protest against government's decision on diesel price, LPG cylinders and FDI in multi-brand retail, coinciding with the agitation by other opposition parties and United Progressive Alliance supporter Samajwadi Party.
Left parties were on Thursday divided on the Presidential election with the Communist Party of India-Marxist and Forward Bloc deciding to support United Progressive Alliance candidate Pranab Mukherjee while the Communist Party of India and Revolutionary Socialist Party opting to abstain from the voting.
The Communist Party of India-Marxist on Saturday asked the government to own up responsibility for tapping phones of top leaders, including Prakash Karat, to 'serve its political purpose' and sought guidelines to prohibit such surveillance.
Top Left leaders Prakash Karat (Communist Party of India-Marxist), A B Bardhan (Communist Party of India), Debabrata Biswas (Forward Bloc) and Abani Roy (Revolutionary Socialist Party), led the demonstration near Parliament House.
Virtually rejecting Trinamool Congress' appeal to support a no-confidence motion to be brought by it, Communist Party of India-Marxist said such a move would only help the government cover up all its "wrong" policies.
As Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress chief Sonia Gandhi launched an attack on parties opposing FDI in retail and other measures, CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat said FDI will be the central issue in the coming session.
The Left parties on Thursday came down heavily on the government for deciding on a series of second- generation of reforms, saying they would fight to defeat these policy measures when they are brought in Parliament.
Left parties on Friday opposed the hike in diesel price with the Communist Party of India-Marxist terming it a "gigantic fraud" and decided to hold protests across the country while targeting thr Trinamool Congress for its "double standard" on the issue.
As Congress intensified efforts for a consensus candidate for the vice president's post, the Communist Party of India Marxist said it is in favour of a candidate who does not belong to the Congress. This was conveyed by CPI-M general secretary Prakash Karat to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who had recently contacted him as part of efforts to seek support of political parties in selection of a candidate in the vice presidential election.
Team Anna on Friday made it clear that a mere discussion in Parliament will not serve any purpose and the Gandhian will not call off his fast till Parliament passes a resolution that the cleared Lokpal Bill will include the three contentious points raised by them.
Dipankar Mukherjee, an engineer-turned-trade unionist and former Rajya Sabha member, died at a hospital in New Delhi on Monday after battling pancreatic cancer.
With its current political-tactical line under attack from the West Bengal lobby of the party, the Prakash Karat camp of the Communist Party of India - Marxist has unleashed a favoured counter-offensive: party classes for the cadres.After a gap of almost three years, a special class called 'Central Party School for student cadres' started at the A K Gopalan Bhawan central headquarters in New Delhi on Sunday.
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