With its electoral fortunes dipping, the CPI(M) is once again trying to muster support for a third alternative in the run-up to the 2014 general elections. A section within the party is sceptical of such a move given its past experience where the regional secular parties have ditched them to forge alliances with either the Congress or the BJP.
With its electoral fortunes dipping, the CPI(M) is once again trying to muster support for a third alternative in the run-up to the 2014 general elections. A section within the party is sceptical of such a move given its past experience where the regional secular parties have ditched them to forge alliances with either the Congress or the BJP. While party general secretary Prakash Karat has already decided to share the platform with Samajwadi Party’s Mulayam Yadav by holding a national convention “in defence of secularism” here on October 30, sources in the party said that such a move may only backfire for the CPI(M) since these parties have proved “untrustworthy’’ in the past. While the SP and BSP are capable of swinging either to the Congress or the BJP, the other regional secular parties like the TDP have already expressed their desire to join the NDA fold. Another party the CPI(M) is eyeing for support is AIADMK which remains non-committal to it. However, the party has been holding parleys with JD(U) president Sharad Yadav and Tamil Nadu chief minister and AIADMK chief J. Jayalalithaa to bring them on board. It may be recalled that in 2009 general elections, Mr Karat along with Mayawati of the Bahujan Samaj Party and some other regional allies, tried to prop up a third front. The experiment not only failed miserably but the Left party’s electoral fortunes also suffered a severe blow. There is now a growing concern within a section of the party that the party top brass is once again aligning with certain leaders and outfits with whom they have no ‘’ideological’’ understanding. “The secular convention may prove beneficial for the SP which wants to project itself as a secular party after the Muzaffarnagar communal riots and blame the BJP, but the Left parties do not have much to gain from it,” a party leader commented. The top Left leaders along with JD(U) president and others are likely to participate in the national convention. The CPI(M) politburo which met on Sunday discussed its overall electoral strategy where the view of the party top brass prevailed.
