Cong tieup to be key focus of CPM congress?

New Delhi: As the CPI(M) congress kicks off on Wednesday, a section of the leadership is of the view that more than ideology, the party needs to go down to the brass tacks and debate on whether having no electoral understanding with the Congress will not wither away its mass base further. There seems to have been much internal debate within the party since the central committee in January adopted a draft political resolution which rules out any electoral understanding with the Congress.

The leadership is split on whether or not in such a scenario the committed anti-BJP vote will swing towards the Congress anyways.

Sources said there is a strong feeling among a significant section that the party should be pragmatic enough to realise that in the post-Modi era, it can lose its committed vote base to the Congress if they think that the Rahul Gandhi-led grand old party is in a better position to defeat the BJP.

“And in such a scenario, if the Congress emerges stronger and there is a possibility of a coalition government like in 2004 or 2009, then it becomes very difficult for our party to bargain for or influence any policy decision as we would not have had any pre-poll alliance with the Congress. If they (voters) go with the Congress, then we don’t get anything. So the official sanction (of a pre-poll alliance) needs to be there,” a senior politburo member of the Party told this newspaper.  

The Polit Bureau member recalled that during UPA-I, many significant pro-poor policy decisions were brought in like the Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, Right to Information Act and the Land Acquisition Act. “We got all this because of declared support. If we do not go into any pre-poll alliance with the Congress, then we will not be in a position to put pressure like in UPA-I and might end up losing our own voter base to the Congress as well.”

Sources said that it is with these arguments in mind that members are planning to move a large number of amendments to counter the majority draft which was adopted at the committee meeting in Kolkata.