JD(U), NCP will look Left after the polls, says Yechury

The CPI(M) expects UPA ally Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and NDA ally Janata Dal (U) to cross over to the Left-led Third Front after results are out on May 16.

In an editorial in the party’s mouthpiece ‘People’s Democracy’, senior leader Sitaram Yechury says that, “the indispensability of the Left in the current Indian political situation has been articulated from other quarters as well. These include the current allies of both the BJP, like the JD(U), and the Congress, like the NCP and others. What is in store for the future, therefore, is a realignment of political forces leading to the emergence of a new secular combination post-elections.”

Yechury also taunted the Congress for sudden overtures towards the Left.

“Soon after the third phase of the elections were over, the Congress suddenly started speaking in terms of a possible post-electoral understanding with the Left. This is nothing but an admission of the fact that the Congress has seen the writing on the wall, that it cannot form the next government along with its existing allies.”

The editorial goes on to remind readers that the reason the Left had withdrawn support to the UPA government had been because it was convinced the Indo-US nuclear deal was against supreme national interest. Yechury then points out how the Left was justified in its stance.

“As we go to press, the US assistant secretary of state, Rose Gottemoeller, told the Preparatory Committee for the 2010 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) review conference at the UN headquarters that “Universal adherence to the NPT itself - including by India, Israel, Pakistan and North Korea - remains a fundamental objective of the US”. India’s consistent refusal to sign the NPT, he says has been imperilled by the strategic alliance with the US.