Non-Cong, non-BJP combine likely by Feb: Karat

To effectively counter Narendra Modi, non-Congress "secular" parties will finalise some concrete electoral alliance by early February, CPI(M) General Secretary Prakash Karat today said.
"The Congress party and its alliance are going to be incapable of countering BJP and Narendra Modi. BJP and Modi can be effectively checked only by a non-Congress secular combination of forces," he told a Meet-the-Press programme organised by the Ernakulam Press Club here.
CPI(M) and other Left parties were working towards arriving at broad agreement with various non-Congress, non-BJP parties.
Such an opposition front was earlier formed after the polls. "We are today already in touch. We are working on a broad, loose combination before elections at regional level," he said.

"This time much before the elections on October 30 last year, 14 parties came together. We are in constant discussions with all parties. By beginning of February, some concrete alliance will be finalised. So that after the elections, we will be able to put together any combination we require against BJP as the Congress is not going to win," Karat said.
Describing the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which made a spectacular electoral debut in the recent Delhi assembly polls, as a 'substitute' for some bourgeoisie party, he said AAP had not made its stand clear on communalism.
On Sarah Joseph, Malayalam writer and ardent Left sympathiser, deciding to join AAP, he said one good thing the AAP had done in Delhi was that it has drawn a lot of people from the middle class who were earlier not interested in politics.

To that extent it is a positive trend. AAP's programmes and policies have to be seen, he said, adding AAP cannot be a substitute for the Left.