CPI(M) for 'grand alliance' against BJP

By Our Special Correspondent

CALCUTTA, JAN. 14. In view of the coming electoral showdown with the Bharatiya Janata Party in Bihar and three other States, the CPI(M) has decided to work towards forging a greater alliance with the CPI and other Left and secular parties which have kept away from the CPI(M) in Bihar because of its tie-up with Mr. Laloo Prasad Yadav's Rashtriya Janata Dal.

The senior party leader, Mr. Sitaram Yechuri, said here today that the politburo, now in session for three days, would discuss the modalities of its approach towards the CPI, Forward Bloc, RSP and the CPI-ML(Liberation) which were increasingly adopting a position of friction with regard to the CPI(M).

The CPI(M) was keen on forging a grand alliance of all these parties and also possibly Mr. Mulayam Singh Yadav's Samajwadi Party because it planned to enter the contest with the BJP - first serious one since the Lok Sabha elections in 1999 - keeping the support bases of all secular parties intact, Mr. Yechuri explained. ``A split in secular ballots will go to the advantage of the BJP; our objective is to go into the fight unitedly.''

The CPI(M)'s present exercise is important in that it represents a kind of a shift from its dependence on the Congress(I) as a viable counter to the BJP to the regional parties which Mr. Yechuri said had successfully ended the Congress(I)'s monopolistic hold on Indian polity.

The CPI(M) would point out to the CPI and its associate parties that their current role would begin to encourage the communal forces before long.

However, the CPI leaders in Calcutta said the party had no intention of evolving a new configuration in Bihar as the CPI(M)'s current association with the RJD was a major hurdle in the way of a grand alliance of Left and secular forces. ``We will not forge an alliance with a party which has the RJD as its partner,'' Mr. Manju Majumdar, secretary of the CPI's West Bengal unit, said.

Mr. Yechuri, one of the leading members of the CPI(M)'s programme commission, said the party would update its programme but keep the concept of democratic centralism undiluted. ``We will change our programme keeping pace with the changing international and national scenario.''

To a question on the campaign by some CPI(M) functionaries on inner-party democracy and greater transparency, he said there was no dearth of democracy and transparency in the party.

``Ours is the most democratic party where all members can openly talk about their grievances in the proper fora. We don't believe in a high command like the others.'' He added that the issue would not figure in the current politburo meeting as it was being handled by the party's West Bengal unit.

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