Thursday, September 22 2005 19:54 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Thrissur: The Congress's 'tie-up' with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the coming civic polls in Kerala ran against the spirit of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) at the Centre and the Common Minimum Programme on which it was based, CPI-M politburo member V S Achuthanandan said today (Sep 22, 2005).

Asked if it would ultimately lead to the withdrawal of Left support to the UPA Government, he told reporters that the Left was not going to withdraw support to the Government all of a sudden.

Achuthanandan said his party's adjustments with DIC (K) was for the purpose of defeating the 'Congress-BJP' alliance in the civic polls, scheduled for September 24 and 26.

Rubbishing DIC (K) leader K Karunakaran's claim that stern measures taken by him as the then State Home Minister in the 70s helped rooting out naxalism in the state, Achuthanandan said land reforms initiated by his party was the real reason for naxalism becoming redundant in Kerala.

CPI-M's party programme and radical and progressive measures like land reform legislations initiated when the party was in power were responsible for the decline of Naxalism in Kerala, he said.