Need to pool anti-BJP votes state wise to beat saffron party: Karat

CPI(M) leader Prakash Karat today said the most effective electoral tactic to defeat the BJP in the Lok Sabha elections was to ensure pooling of anti-BJP votes state-wise, as any effort to build a non-BJP, non-Congress "federal front" was bound to fail.

In an editorial in the latest edition of the party organ 'People's Democracy', the former general secretary of the party said regional interests would prevent regional parties from coming together.

"Any effort to build a non-BJP, non-Congress 'federal front' mooted by Telangana Chief Minister KC Rao, is bound to fail. Some of the regional parties like the DMK and the RJD are with the Congress in their respective states. Further, there are many contradictions amongst the regional parties in terms of policies and regional interests which will prevent all the regional parties coming together.

"So, the most effective electoral tactics to defeat the BJP in the Lok Sabha election would be to ensure pooling of anti-BJP votes state-wise. This is what happened in the UP by-elections," Karat said.

He also reiterated that even though the Congress was hoping to build an extended UPA-style alliance to counter the BJP, it would not succeed.

"The Congress has no credibility to lead such an alliance in terms of an alternative programme. An electoral alliance or understanding with the Congress, which adopts and follows the same neo-liberal policies like the BJP, would not serve the purpose," Karat wrote.

He said regional parties like the BJD in Odisha, the TRS in Telangana and the TDP in Andhra Pradesh would not agree to be partners in any alliance headed by the Congress.

Karat argued and stressed on state-wise political tactics as the most practical way to isolate and defeat the BJP in each state, and at the same time, safeguard the interests of the CPI (M) and pave the way for the advance of the Left and other democratic forces.