Hyderabad, Mar 29 :The CPI has backed West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s stand favouring inclusion of the Congress in a front to take on the BJP in the general elections next year.
On the Trinamool Congress leader’s efforts to forge opposition unity, the Communist Party of India general secretary Suravaram Sudhakar Reddy said electoral adjustment among the opposition parties at the national level may not be possible.
“But in the states, according to their specific conditions, there should be some sort of one-to-one contest to defeat the BJP,” the veteran leader told PTI.
Reddy said in states like West Bengal and Kerala, where the Left is directly pitted against the Trinamool Congress and the Congress respectively, joining of forces between them would not be possible.
“It (electoral adjustment) will be possible in states where this type of a situation (as exists in West Bengal and Kerala) is not there,” he said.
“I can’t speak on behalf of the entire Left. But my party’s opinion is wherever there is a possibility with a regional party and other parties (to put up a common candidate against the BJP), there should be some sort of understanding and we are not for exclusion of the Congress where there is a possibility (for electoral understanding),” the CPI leader said.
On who is the bigger adversary for the Left — the BJP or the Trinamool Congress, he said, “Of course the BJP. Our main adversary is the BJP. We will fight the BJP…main enemy.”
Banerjee yesterday met UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi in Delhi and stressed the need for the Congress to be part of a front to take on the BJP.
She had also met a host of other opposition leaders during her two-day visit to the national capital.
Banerjee met NCP supremo Sharad Pawar and leaders of some regional parties, including NDA ally Shiv Sena, to explore possibilities of a “federal front” to take on the BJP in the next Lok Sabha polls.
The West Bengal chief minister also met disgruntled BJP leaders Yashwant Sinha and Shatrughan Sinha, besides having a telephonic conversation with Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav, with whom she talked of a “one-to-one” fight in the states.
“I have told Sonia ji that what the country wants is there should be a state-wise one-to-one fight against the BJP. Whichever party is the strongest in a state, that party should contest in that state against the BJP,” she had said.
