Left leaders meet to review poll outcome

After one of their worst ever performances in the general elections, leaders of the Left parties met here today and decided to work as a "responsible" opposition in Parliament.     

The four parties, whose total tally in Parliament plummeted from 61 in 2004 to 24, also decided to continue to work in cooperation with their non-Congress non-BJP allies like BSP, AIADMK, TDP, JD(S) and BJD.     

The meeting was attended by CPI(M)'s Prakash Karat, S R Pillai and Sitaram Yechury, CPI's A B Bardhan and D Raja, RSP's T J Chandrachoodan and Forward Bloc's Debabrata Biswas and D Devarajan.     

"The Left will work as a responsible opposition in Parliament. The Left parties will continue our cooperation with the non-Congress, non-BJP allies," the parties said in a statement read out by Bardhan after the 90-minute meeting.     

While Karat did not respond to questions by the waiting media, Bardhan said the four Left parties would individually review the reverses suffered by them and then meet again to "come to a collective assessment on how to over the shortcomings and move ahead.

"The Left parties, which faced major rout in their bastions of West Bengal and Kerala, would go for assembly elections in these states two years from now.     

Asked whether their opposition to economic reform measures of the UPA government was rejected by the people, the veteran CPI leader said, "People overwhelmingly voted for them does not mean that all wrongs have become right."     

He said the Left parties would continue to raise the issues of the poor and downtrodden and "take our understanding to the people".     

Asked whether CPI(M)'s "high-handedness" had led to this rout, Bardhan said "I don't think so".     

Biswas said the parties would review their performance at their own meetings and then meet among themselves to come to a "collective conclusion" and decide on how to move ahead.     

"We are discussing the reasons of the debacle. We will go through the reasons why we lost. All the parties will also individually need to discuss the issue," Chandrachoodan said. reporters before the meeting.