Cong rules out support to Third Front govt

We will not leave Third Front allies: CPI(M).

The Congress and the Left parties today clashed over government formation after the Lok Sabha elections with the Congress dismissing suggestions that it would support the Third Front. The CPI(M), on the other hand, said it was not averse to taking support from the Congress to keep the BJP out of power.

“No, Congress is not ready to support any other formation,” party spokesman Kapil Sibal said on a question whether his party would support a government from outside as it did in the past.

To a query whether the Congress was contemplating giving support to the Third Front, Sibal shot back: “There is no such thing as Third Front. It is not even upfront”.

 

In Burdwan, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee took a dig at the Third Front, saying the CPI(M) was dreaming of forming a government at the Centre. “We have decided on Manmohan Singh as the prime ministerial candidate. The NDA has LK Advani. Who will be the PM of the Third Front?” he asked.

CPI(M) General Secretary Prakash Karat today made it clear that the Left parties were for formation of a non-Congress secular government at the Centre. “We have taken a decision that we (Third Front) should form a government. There can be a non-Congress government at the Centre with Congress remaining outside and extending support,” Karat told reporters here.

Even as parties like Sharad Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Lalu Prasad’s Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) have started wooing the Left parties, Karat said the Left would not take a separate stand but collectively decide on the next government with its present Third Front allies.

“As far as we are concerned, we have a pre-poll alliance with parties like the AIADMK, BJD, TDP and JD(S). We will consult these parties and take a collective decision. Don’t try to isolate the Left from others,” Karat said.

Karat’s move is designed to pour cold water on the possibility of supporting a Congress-led coalition as parties like the TDP and the BJD are stridently anti-Congress. At the same time, the CPI(M) is trying to show that it is following the coalition dharma and it will not be easy for parties like the RJD and NCP to get the Left support.

On Thursday, Pawar said in Maharashtra that the UPA might require the “blessings and support” of the Left parties. “That is why, from the first day, I am consistently saying to all my colleagues in the UPA that let us keep good rapport with the Left,” he said.

Lalu Prasad too said that doors for a post-poll alliance with the Left were “still open”.

While Karat and CPI General Secretary A B Bardhan have ruled out the possibility of supporting a Congress-led government, some senior leaders in West Bengal are, however, still trying to keep it an open question and claim the issue will be resolved after the election.