No scope for 'blackmail' by Cong, BJP: Yechury on Third Front

Regional and Left parties are working for a majority on their own in the next Lok Sabha, sans support from Congress or BJP, senior CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury said today.
"No, I am saying that the number of other parties, excluding Congress and BJP, will be substantial enough and such scope for blackmail by Congress or the BJP won't be there. We are working for a majority without the Congress or the BJP," he told PTI here.
He was asked whether the Left would want the Congress to be part of the government or extend support to the regional- Left combination.

Yechury said earlier experiences of stability of regional parties' coalition like the United Front or the one led by V P Singh had shown that these governments depended either on the Congress or the BJP which withdrew support causing the governments to fall.
On whether such a front was strongly in the reckoning for power at the Centre, the CPI(M) leader said, "We are working towards this. We are working for a non-Congress, non-BJP political combination and its objective should be to implement alternative policies.
"It is not only political combination for power....In the sense of just forming government. It's a combination for implementing alternative policies."

Asked about "inherent contradictions" in such a combination as SP-BSP, CPI(M)-TMC or DMK-AIADMK could not join the same platform, Yechury said, "That's why I am saying, all these issues will be discussed post-elections. That's our objective.