The Left parties are meeting on Thursday to chalk out a strategy to force the govt to toe their line on economic and foreign policy issues.
NEW DELHI: The two-day CPI(M) politburo meeting which concluded in Kolkata on Sunday is not good news for the reform lobby and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. While poster-boy Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee was isolated in the meeting, the hardliners, buoyed by the party's electoral success in West Bengal and Kerala, decided to crack the whip on the UPA.
Sources said the feeling with the party is that the UPA is taking the Left for granted. As many as 19 notes on various issues that the Left forwarded to the government remain unanswered and hence the need to take harsh measures.
The Left parties are meeting here on Thursday to chalk out their joint strategy to force the UPA government to toe their line on economic and foreign policy issues. The Left leaders are likely to send a "strong note" to the government listing their pet issues which the Centre has chosen to ignore.
The party's assessment is that the Congress has not been able to revive its fortunes in the Hindi heartland and is losing ground elsewhere. The CPI(M), on the other hand, gained in the recent elections immensely because it highlighted issues affecting the common man.
Party honchos are working on a three-pronged strategy - using Parliament to block "anti-people" measures by the UPA government, take up pro-people issues in the street and to collaborate with all secular, anti-BJP, anti-Congress parties in and outside Parliament to augment its fire power and bring the UPA down on its knees, party sources said.
The party central committee meeting being held in Hyderabad from June 8 will discuss the strategy in detail. Big brother CPI(M), has another agenda: To expand the party's base beyond its traditional strongholds by constantly harping on "aam admi" issues, secure around 100 seats in the Lok Sabha in the next Parliamentary elections in 2009 and lead a third front government.
To begin with, a nation-wide protest is being launched around mid-June against the move to hike the prices of petroleum products.
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