New Delhi: The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) Saturday urged non-Congress, non-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) parties to jointly contest the coming Lok Sabha elections.

The appeal was made in a statement issued by the party's Central Committee, which met in Kochi in Kerala Jan 8-10.

Calling for the defeat of the Congress and the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) it leads, the party said that the BJP needed to be kept out of power too for its communal politics.

The statement said the CPI-M and the Communist Party of India (CPI) had worked out an electoral understanding with parties like the Telugu Desam, AIADMK and the Janata Dal-Secular.

“The Left parties along with the secular parties should work together to make the non-Congress, non-BJP alternative realisable,” it said.

“For this, the CPI-M appeals to all the non-Congress secular parties to come together on a platform of defence of secularism, pro-people economic policies and an independent foreign policy.”

The CPI-M accused the Congress-led government of pursuing “anti-people economic policies” and a “harmful … strategic alliance with the US”.

The CPI-M also said that the results of the recent assembly elections in the four northern and central states “are not in any way indicative of the trends for the Lok Sabha polls.

“Neither the Congress nor the BJP can take satisfaction from the results. The BJP suffered a greater setback having lost Rajasthan and failing to dislodge the Congress from the government of Delhi.

“As for the Congress, it could not oust the BJP in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh despite the discontent and anti-incumbency in these two states.”

 

Source : ians