Kolkata: Accusing the UPA government of failing to check rise in prices of essential goods and pursuing anti-people policies, CPI(M) today said there was an imperative need for a third alternative which would be debated at the party's coming Congress in Coimbatore later this week.

It is now an imperative need to find a third alternative at the Centre after the failure of the Congress-led UPA alliance and the BJP-led combine's potential of being a threat to the country's secular fabric, West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadev Bhattacharjee today said. The issue would be vigorously dated at the CPI-M Congress beginning in Coimbatore on March 29, Bhattacharjee, a party politbureau member, told a Left Front rally here.

The UPA government's "failure" is most reflected in zooming of prices of essential commodities and various "anti-people" policies, he said adding "we want an alternative for the country".

"We have repeatedly told the UPA government to take lessons from its wrong policies in the past but it did not pay heed and people throughout the country have protested against its anti-people policies, he said. "The BJP-led alliance is dangerous for the country if it comes back to power and the UPA alliance has proved a failure", Bhattacharjee said.

He said the need of the hour was to unite Left forces in the country so that a third alternative became a viable political entity, Bhattacherjee said. The rally was organised to accord reception to Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar for the massive victory of the Left Front in last month's assembly elections in that state.

Bhattacharjee said the Centre's failure to arrest rising prices of essential commodities had made life miserable for the common man.

Coming to Tripura, he said the overwhelming mandate for the Left in that state had created a new opportunity for forging a third alternative. Describing Left-ruled Tripura as an exception, Bhattacharjee said every North-Eastern state was witnessing bloody clashes and the governments there had been unable to cope with them because they were compromising with the militants.

The extremists in the North-Eastern region have taken refuge in Bangladesh and freely cross over to Indian territory to commit crimes like arsoning of houses, Bhattacharjee said. The Tripura Chief Minister alleged "ISI and CIA have been giving a covert support to the INPT which is a political mask for secessionist forces and with which Congress had forged an electoral alliance in recent assembly elections in the state.

Sarkar charged the UPA government with not honouring the Common Minimum Pogramme and opened the gates for multinational companies. "The UPA government is trying to act as a joint partner of the USA which is evident from its handling of the nuclear deal," Sarkar said.

Source : PTI