CPI calls for grand alliance of anti-BJP parties to defeat Modi in 2019 Lok Sabha polls

The Communist Party of India (CPI) on said it was a "historical necessity" for non-BJP parties to come together to prevent the lead outfit of the NDA from coming back to power in 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
CPI General Secretary Suravaram Sudhakar Reddy said it was possible to prop up a grand alliance of anti-BJP parties, as mooted by JD(U) president and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.

From time to time, there is a need to forge such a front, he said, adding the then ruling dispensations under V P Singh and H D Deve Gowda were "successful" and not "failures".

"Of course, for a limited time (those fronts were successful). You may say that it was not permanent. It was not meant to be permanent. It was to prevent BJP and communal forces from coming to power. Now, again such a situation has come. So, it's a historical necessity to forge such type of understanding between different parties," Reddy told PTI.

"I don't know what exactly Nitish Kumar's idea is but it can be a platform, a loose confederation but non-BJP or anti-BJP parties should come together...may be pre-election or post-election. They should join together to give a crushing defeat to BJP," he said.

Reddy charged the saffron party with "creating not only more pro-corporate economic policies but also trying to divide the country on religious basis, creating tensions among people and forcing outdated ideas on them".

"They are trying to put Hindi, Hindutva type of things in a multi-religious, multi-cultural and multi-linguistic country. In India, such a thing is not possible," he said.