It is now an imperative need to find a third alternative at the Centre after the failure of the Congress-led UPA alliance and the Bharatiya Janata Party-led combine's potential of being a threat to the country's secular fabric, West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya said. The issue would be vigorously deated at the CPI-M Congress beginning in Coimbatore on March 29, Bhattacharya, a party politbureau member, told a Left Front rally in Kolkata.
Listing out issues over which the Trinamool Congress has differed with its ally Congress so far, the Communist Party of India - Marxist on Thursday asked how the two parties could continue to co-exist in the United progressive Alliance coalition and the government."We can't understand on which issue the Trinamool Congress agrees with the government. First, we want to know how they are co-existing," said CPI-M leader Sitaram Yechury.
In the event of Left parties deciding to withdraw support forcing a mid-term poll for the Lok Sabha both the sides have a lot to lose, as the shadow-boxing between them will have an impact on the poll outcome, political observers point out. Knowing well that CPI-M is ideologically opposed to the nuclear deal and that it would not have a direct bearing on the electorate, the Congress party is confident of facing people, but not before bringing down the spiralling prices.
"The government seems to have lost its will to carry out the CMP and more and more it is functioning only to benefit a section of our people," Bardhan lamented.
Both the BJP and the Congress have banked on new and young faces, some of whom have been nominated by the parties for the first time.
Cash collections accounted for a whopping 63 per cent of total funds or over Rs 2,100 crore garnered by various political parties during all state assembly polls between 2004 and 2015, a study showed on Monday.
Their parleys, which staved off a breakdown between the Left and the ruling coalition for the time being, followed a series of meetings between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, United Progressive Alliance chairperson and Congress president Sonia Gandhi and top leaders of the party till late Thursday night.
The United Progressive Alliance government is inching towards a premature demise. It is a matter of time before the Left parties severe its ties with the government or the government gears up for a confrontation with its Left supporters by going ahead with the India-US civilian nuclear agreement. Congress media manager M Veerappa Moily gave a hint of the latter possibility in interactions with news television channels on Wednesday night.
The party said though actor-turned-politician Vijaykant, who founded the Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam, speaks about people's problems, his economic policies were not known. The Pattali Makkal Katchi was also raising a lot of people's problems
To counter the official version of history, the Communist Party of India-Marxist has decided to trace the events from the 1857 Sepoy Mutiny to India's independence through party organs like People's Democracy.