2-day CPI(M) meet from tomorrow to discuss poll strategy

Preparations for polls in five states and the strategy to bring together non-Congress, non- BJP parties on a common platform before next year's general elections would come up for discussion at a meeting of the CPI(M) leadership which begins here tomorrow.
The party politburo, which has decided to put up candidates in four of the five states going to polls, has called the two-day meet to give final touches to its strategy for the upcoming electoral battles, CPI(M) sources said.
In Rajasthan, it has formed a five-party alliance along with CPI, Samajwadi Party, JD(S) and JD(U), to contest around 40 seats. It plans to contest three seats in Delhi, about nine in Madhya Pradesh and four in Chattisgarh, they said.

As part of its overall strategy, CPI(M) has been attacking the Congress-led UPA government over its neo-liberal economic policies while conducting campaigns against the "communal designs" of RSS-BJP with a view to uniting secular and democratic parties on a joint platform based on an alternative policy framework.
The meeting comes in the wake of top CPI(M) leaders, including General Secretary Prakash Karat and Sitaram Yechury, holding parleys with leaders of other parties like SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and AIADMK chief J Jayalalithaa.
In its effort to forge a broad platform on people's issues that could be used later for the elections, CPI(M) is organising a national convention 'in defence of secularism' here on October 30, in which top Left leaders, including Yadav, and others, are likely to participate.

The sources said CPI(M)'s assessment was that all non- Congress, non-BJP and regional parties were aiming at strengthening their own positions in Parliament, as that would help them to manouevre and forge post-election alignments.
Keeping that in mind, CPI(M) feels it would have to pursue the possibility of having an understanding with these parties in certain states, they said.