Buddha keeps everyone guessing on Left support to Cong

The softening of the Left’s attitude towards the Congress party became more apparent today with West Bengal’s marxist Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee saying that the no truck stand is a pre-poll position and the decision would be reviewed. On his part, the prime minister appeared to be wooing the Left when he said all secular parties had an obligation to provide a “purposeful, secular” government at the Centre and prevent the NDA from coming to power at “all costs”. Singh said allies of the UPA, which were “unhappy”, could be won over but ruled out support to any government led by the Left parties arguing that they would not get more seats than the Congress.

Bhattacharjee said CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat’s view that there was no question of supporting the Congress post elections was ‘the pre-election position’ of the CPI(M) in remarks seen as conciliatory to the Congress which the chief minister said is not considered “untouchable”.

At the same time, he said the Left, attempting to form a possible Third Front government, might join it if it could play a meaningful role. “The Left will join a Third Front government if it can play a meaningful role in policy making and implementation.”

With just five days left for the vote count, political parties stared at uncertainty and were finetuning strategies to deal with various possible scenarios.

The post-poll equations between estranged partners Left and the Congress hogged the limelight today after the statements by the prime minister in Ludhiana and Bhattacharjee, a CPI-M veteran, in Kolkata.