Ready to forge front with Cong in Parliament, but not outside:Yechury

CPI(M) says it is ready to forge a front with Congress in Parliament on issues like land bill and secularism but ruled out being part of a national front or alliances outside because "they are not credible".

Sitaram Yechury, the newly-elected General Secretary of the party, acknowledges that the coming assembly elections in Bihar would be a litmus test for anti-BJP forces and would wait and watch how the merger of Janata Parivar evolves in deciding their strategy.

The leader of the CPI(M), whose party joined Sonia Gandhi-led protest march to Rashtrapati Bhavan on the land acquisition bill, said the party's first emphasis is to strengthen itself.

"Inside Parliament, we have said we will unite on all these issues (like land bill), issue to issue which we think are not in the interests of the country and the people.

"Outside Parliament, our party has said that the projection of a front at the national level, with many of these regional parties, is not tenable at the moment because such a front has to have a policy alternative, which as a whole, we think, in the present situation cannot emerge," Yechury told PTI in an interview.

He was replying to a question as to what will be CPI(M)'s stand on tying up with Congress and other parties to take on BJP, especially after the new-found camaraderie under Congress President Gandhi.

The 63-year-old parliamentary party leader, who has a reputation of practising pragmatic politics, said that Rahul Gandhi's recent campaign on issues like land bill is good.

"But right now there is no coherent alternative the Congress is offering. Now we will have to wait and see the next important thing that will come," he said, adding the GST Bill and the labour law reforms the government is trying to push can be a new area of opportunity for joint action.