CPI says ‘ door isn’t yet shut’ on pact with Cong

A day after the CPI( M) central committee rejected party general secretary Sitaram Yechury’s proposal to go in for an electoral alliance with the Congress in 2019, the other major Left party, the CPI, indicated it had not yet closed its doors on the Congress.

“We have not taken any decision on an electoral alliance with the Congress as yet,” CPI national secretary D. Raja told this newspaper.

He, however, stressed on the need to join hands with all “secular forces” to fight off fascist forces and the RSS, and added that the Congress too can be a part of this broad secular alliance. “But elections are separate. An electoral understanding is different. We have not taken any decision as yet,” Mr Raja said.

Reiterating this, CPI general secretary Suravaram Sudhakar Reddy said in Hyderabad that his party was generally of the opinion that all secular forces should come together on a broader platform, but an electoral alliance was different.

“About the electoral alliance with the Congress, we have not decided either to join or not to join. We have not taken any such decision. We will discuss it,”

Mr Reddy added. The CPI leader said that after the resolution adopted by the CPI( M) on Sunday, the issue of an alliance with the Congress would be discussed within his party and also with the CPI( M). Mr Reddy said though there might not be any possibility of having an all- India alliance with the Congress, “in some states, no- contest type of things can be worked out”.

“But we want Left unity as the first priority. So, on this issue, we want to discuss in our party and with the CPI( M) too,” he added. At its central committee meeting in Kolkata on Sunday, the CPI( M)’ s Kerala faction had defeated a draft moved by general secretary Sitaram Yechury which favoured an electoral understanding with the Congress to defeat the BJP- RSS combine in 2019.