Barely after the electoral battle is over, the Left leaders are gearing themselves up for the next round of battles. On the surface of it the battle is for forming a political block with some of the non-Congress, non-BJP political forces with a distant goal of forming the government at the centre.
But underneath it there is a more serious battle raging within the Left parties. CPI-M general secretary Prakash Karat held a meeting today with A B Bardhan and Debabrata Biswas, the two general secretaries of CPI and FB respectively. This has sparked off speculation among a section of the Left leaders that Karat has been reaching out to rally opinion in his favour among the other Left parties. This is an attempt to prevent a possible move of the Left parties to support a Congress led government at the centre.
According to a senior left leader from Delhi, till today the Left leaders are not decided on the question of lending support to a Congress led government if the need arises.
While Karat is hell bent upon opposing any such move, the CPIM leaders in Bengal have a different view on the issue.
Recently, Sitaram Yechury, a member of CPI-M politburo and also a member of Rajya Sabha from West Bengal, came to Kolkata to campaign for his party’s candidates.
According to party sources, around that time Yechury discussed the issue with three of the politburo members from the state, namely, Biman Bose, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and Nirupam Sen. Prompted by these discussions Biman Bose raised this issue with Karat over phone. It is learnt from sources close to party headquarters in Alimuddin Street that Biman Bose tried to impress upon Karat the merit of going a little soft on the Congress.
Karat did hear him out patiently but did not commit himself to any position. But Karat was not sitting idle either. He initiated his moves by setting up an impromptu meeting with Bardhan and Biswas to discuss the situation.
On May 17 the four Left parties are scheduled to have meeting to decide on the broad outline of the strategy. Already the Left leaders have initiated dialogue with various regional parties and they will formally meet their leaders at Delhi on May 18 after the meeting of the CPI-M politburo.
The all important CPI-M central committee meeting will begin on May 19, and it may extend to the next day. The CPI has also convened its central executive meeting on May 19 and will take it to their highest decision making body national council on May 20-21.
A senior Left leader feels that though the Left leaders are still talking of forming a Third Front government at the centre that remains a distant dream.
So, eventually, in the post poll scenario the question might boil down to lending Left support to a Congress led government.
In that situation, a section of the senior Left leaders feel, Karat will be able to carry a majority of the central committee members to his view. According to him, the Bengal comrades’ soft attitude towards Congress stems from a narrow political view: to create confusion among the opposition and force the TMC, their main political adversary in the state, to severe their relationship with the Congress.
But, he feels that this won’t generate sufficient support among the rest of the members in the central committee.
The members from Kerala, Tamilnadu, Andhra Pradesh and Tripura, an overwhelming majority of the 82 member committee are likely to side with Karat. As it is the untimely attacks initiated by Subhas Chakraborty against Karat has only weakened the case of the Bengal comrades, though they did not share his view. Karat’s game plan is to create a scenario where a number of regional political outfits will come together to form a political block with the Left and together move in their effort to stall any initiative to help Congress in its bid to the power. For that, Karat and his group has to win the Left parties first to their side.
