Congress not untouchable: Buddhadeb

Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) leader and West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee said on Monday the Left parties do not consider Congress as untouchable, but insisted they are trying to form an alternate government without the two major national parties.

“We don’t believe in untouchability. We don’t consider Congress as untouchable,” Buddhadeb said when asked about the post-poll Congress-Left alliance at the Centre, but added, “At this moment, our basic objective is to form a government without Congress and BJP.”

We are trying to form a Third Front government at the Centre with like-minded secular and democratic parties and the Left will play a significant role in it, he told reporters at a meet-the-press programme in Kolkata today.

"If an alternate government is formed according to an unified agenda, there is a change in the country's internal, economic and foreign policies, and we can play a meaningful role to achieve that, we will join that government," he said.

However, keeping all options open, he said: “Let the results be announced. Then we will take a final decision. It is too early to say at this juncture who is going to support whom.”

It is to note here that after CPM Polit Bureau member Sitaram Yechury’s leaving the door ajar for the Congress for the post-poll alliance, CPM general secretary Prakash Karat, who has been vocal at the Congress in recent times, also toned down his verbal attack, perhaps after judging the four-phase poll’s probable outcome that no party was going to get absolute majority.

Karat, however, ruled out support to a Congress-led alliance and put the onus of forming a secular government at the Centre on Congress. “It will be for Congress to take a decision whether they will facilitate the formation of a secular government at the Centre," he said.

Interestingly, in response to Karat seeking Congress support to Left-led Third Front at the Centre, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh addressing an election rally in Ludhiana on Monday said: “there is no question of backing the Left if it wants to take power.”