The CPI(M) may join the next third front government, provided the front emerges the single-largest bloc to bid for power at the Centre.
NEW DELHI: The CPI(M) may join the next third front government, provided the front emerges the single-largest bloc to bid for power at the Centre. Joining a non-Congress, non-BJP government in Delhi will provide the party opportunities to expand base outside its strongholds, an insider said.
In 1996, almost all regional satraps were willing to accept CPI(M) veteran Jyoti Basu as prime minister, but Marxist hardliners led by Prakash Karat vetoed the move, prompting Basu to say that it was a “historic blunder”.
Party sources said Karat, who took over as general secretary in 2005, is learning the art of realpolitik. The Marxist ideologue has understood the need for “pragmatism” without sacrificing “ideology” in the changed national and international political scenario.
Asked if the CPI(M) will join a future government at the Centre, a party leader said, “We are not averse to the idea if the government is non-Congress, non-BJP.
“But a decision will be taken only after assessing the post-poll scenario and the arithmetic of numbers.”
Marxist spin doctors claim in the next general elections, the Left and BSP would account for 100 LS seats. Add to it the seats of TDP, JDS, RLD, INLD and a few others.
“Our (third front) tally will be more than that of the Congress and the BJP,” the party leader said.
He said the party propped up the United Front government in 1996 and the UPA in 2004, but despite its enormous clout at the Centre, could not expand outside its traditional strongholds of West Bengal, Kerala and Tripura.
“Not for the sake of power, but power could give us influence and leeway to expand the party. We could wangle social sector portfolios and do many things for the welfare of people, instead of barking from outside,” he said.
Party sources said even as Karat stuck to his rigid anti-imperialistic posture, he surprised the political class by getting BSP chief Mayawati to side with him soon after the Samajwadi Party walked out to embrace the Congress. He also managed to rope in Janata Dal(S) chief Deve Gowda.
The dalliance with Mayawati is quite uncharacteristic of the CPI(M), which never misses an opportunity to debunk “political opportunism” of its rivals.
At its last congress, the party removed BSP’s name from the political resolution, which inter alia said: “More and more bourgeois parties are banking on caste identities and trying to build caste combinations. Such caste mobilisations pose serious problems for the Left movement, which seeks to build a wider movement of oppressed sections of all communities....”
k_benedict@dnaindia.net
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