The Hindu - CPI(M) not averse to supporting UPA after next polls -- Sitaram Yechury

tag: n-deal


The Hindu - Indian Newspapers in English Language from eight editions.

CPI(M) not averse to supporting UPA after next polls

New Delhi (PTI): The Left parties may have snapped ties with the UPA over nuclear deal on an acrimonious note, but the CPI(M) is not averse to supporting the Congress-led coalition after the next elections provided "that they do not betray it like this time".

Senior CPI(M) Polit Bureau member Sitaram Yechury said the present "experience will be a shadow" in the ties but did not rule out Left extending support to Congress based on the "circumstances and policies" it follows.

"It (support) depends on the policies they follow. If they follow a CMP without betraying like now," Yechury told Karan Thapar in CNN-IBN's Devil's Advocate programme.

"This experience (Government going to IAEA) will (however) be a shadow," he said, adding that the Left extended support to the UPA four years ago based on the common minimum programme (CMP) which "did not include the nuclear deal".

CPI General Secretary A B Bardhan has, three days ago said, the Left parties will not be averse to supporting Congress in the bigger fight against communal forces in future but indicated that it would not support a government led by Manmohan Singh.

He said there would be "occasions" in the future when the Left parties will have to fight against communal forces together with Congress and similar "secular" parties.

"He (Singh) will not always be the Prime Minister. I am talking about the Congress as an institution. I am talking of secular parties. We will have to deal with them," Bardhan said.