Oppn yet to reach consensus

NEW DELHI: The meeting of the 21 opposition parties on Wednesday briefly touched upon the subject of a pre-poll Common Minimum Programme but failed to come to a conclusion. There were suggestions that Congress, if it wants, can have a pre-poll CMP with the parties with which they have inked alliances in different states.

After the extensive discussions on the prevailing security situation, Congress leaders turned on to the CMP even as CPIM general secretary Sitaram Yechury opposed it. He argued that past experiences have shown that CMP is made only after the polls. “You can’t have a CMP and then fight each other during the campaign,”he said.

BSP’S Satish Misra sided with Yechury and said in Uttar Pradesh, his party would be fighting against Congress and a CMP might confuse the voters. Congress leaders argued that in the absence of a pre-poll alliance, a CMP can show the pack of opposition parties as pre-poll partners and that can help if no one party gets a majority.

Some senior leaders pointed out that in 2004, UPA, a post-poll alliance, was asked to form the government after Vajpayee failed to get majority.

But Congress chief Rahul Gandhi, according to two senior leaders present in the meeting, said Modi is very different from Vajpayee and he might try to retain power even if his party fails to get majority. He also added that Opposition should not trust the BJP in these matters of politics as it is capable of doing anything.

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