Little options ‘left’, CPI for poll truck with Cong

Sarbjit Dhaliwal

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, August 10

The CPI is open for an electoral pact with the Congress not only in Punjab, but also in other states, in a move that is being seen as a major shift from the party’s earlier resolution of having in place a wider alliance of Left parties for the Assembly poll.

Sources say a new realisation in the Left parties, especially the CPI, is that they cannot fight the Sangh Parivar and its fundamentalism alone. As such, there is need for a broader secular alliance that needs to regain the confidence of the people, they say.

The CPI adopted the new strategy to fight the “right wingers” at its national executive held in New Delhi last month. A leader says the Congress fits well in the CPI’s planned “democratic secular alliance”. Another leader, though, says the CPI has no other options left in Punjab.

“We cannot have an alliance with the SAD-BJP combine,” says Dr Joginder Dayal, a member of the CPI national executive.

The party’s top leaders would be meeting in Punjab later this month to discuss the prospects of an alliance. National leaders, including Shameem Faizee and Amarjit Kaur, are likely to brief the state leadership on the party’s changed strategy and thinking in its top echelons. “We will also discuss the political situation in the state and the poll options available before the party,” says Dr Dayal.

The Congress and the CPI have contested the Assembly elections as allies in the past too. Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee president Capt Amarinder Singh has also said a number of times that he is not averse to having an alliance with the Left to “defeat the SAD-BJP combine”.