Thursday, January 6 2005 17:44 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: In a reaction to Samajwadi Party's (SP) statements on the forging of a 'Third Front', the CPM (Communist Party of India-Marxist) today (Jan 6, 2005) said any talk of such a Front purely for electoral purposes would provide space for "communal" forces to return to the central political arena.

Observing that such a front should emerge through joint popular struggles on common issues, the party said, "Any talk of a Third Front as means for political and electoral manoeuvring at the Centre today, has the danger of providing scope and space for the communal forces to seek a return to the centre-stage".

"This is something, in which, all those who cherish India, as we know it today, cannot permit", the CPM organ 'People's Democracy' said in an editorial, adding that the fight against communalism was "non-negotiable".

Castigating the Samajwadi Party for "disrupting" the People's Front effort by backing the BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party)-NDA (National Democratic Alliance) candidate in the Presidential poll, the CPM charged some other constituents of the erstwhile United Front for "displaying rank opportunism" by abandoning "the anti-communal platform to join the BJP-led NDA so as to share the spoils of power".