Mid-Term Polls Likely If Cmp Is Ignored, Says Yechuri

Certain observations made here yesterday by CPM politburo member Sitaram Yachuri left little doubt that his party was expecting elections much earlier than it had hoped for.

Yechuri said the United Front government would not be able to complete its term unless it fulfilled all the commitments it made to the people in its common minimum programme (CMP).

It is his party's view that the government is not fulfilling the CMP with the sincerity expected of it. Instances of bypassing the CMP were several, he said and spelled out the most transparent of them as the failure of the UF Government to improve on the public distribution system, make higher allocations for sanitation and health, bring about radical agricultural labour measures through special enactments and push through legislation setting up the Lok Pal and providing reservations for women.

The CMP was vital to strengthen the UF's links with the people, he said and added that this was behind the CPM programme of mass contact from July 31 to August 1. At the same time, Yechuri argued that if a midterm poll is forced on the people, it is the Congress rather that the several internal contradictions within the United Front that will take the blame. Despite these internal contradictions, the CPM leader said, every constituent of the United Front was convinced on the need for unity within the Front.

But the Congress, having pulled the rug once, can not be trusted. All the same, it is not in the interest of the Congress that a midterm poll should be forced. Yechuri reiterated that the core committee of the National Front took a definite decision not to allow the RJD into the National Front. The July 25 meeting will have to decide only the future of the three RJD ministers in the Gujral government.

He also reiterated that Laloo Prasad Yadav should not hold a public office once a charge-sheet has been filed against him and the high court had rejected his anticipatory bail plea.

There can be no compromise on corruption at any cost, he said.