FB, RSP stick to anti-Cong stance

RSP with five and Forward Bloc having two members in the erstwhile Lok Sabha, earned the wrath of the front major CPI(M), which failed to persuade the two parties in changing their stand towards the Congress.

RSP leader Biswanath Chowdhury told PTI, “Our decision towards the Congress still stands, and there is no possibility of any shift from the decision”. He said RSP leaders would discuss the current political situationhere shortly.

Veteran Forward Bloc leader Ashok Ghosh said, “we enjoy the right to have independent views and we expressed it at the crucial time. But this will hardly affect Left Front unity”.

The Forward Bloc state secretary justified the stand of Samajwadi Party too in opposing the move to support a Congress-led government, and said party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav took the “right decision at the right moment.”

The Forward Bloc leader said the party’s central committee would meet here on May 16 and 17 to review the national political situation before and after dissolution of the Lok Sabha, as also to chalk out strategy for the coming mid-term polls.

To a question, Ghosh said it was reprehensible that the CPI(M) was critical of both the Forward Bloc and the RSP for opposing the move to support a Congress-led government.

“However, I don’t want to comment on CPI(M)’s criticism and I also hope it will not have any effect on the smooth running of the Left Front and cordial relations among thepartners,” he said.

“Left Front will remain and we will further strengthen the unity among ourselves”, Ghosh said, refusing to admit that his party’s opposition to the CPI(M) stand was a “deterrent” in the Left Front unity. However, he hastened to add that his party’s stand on the issue was “very much justified”.

Calling for consolidating Left unity for re-emergence of the Third Front, he said such a front would be able to effectively counter both the BJP and the Congress politically.

The veteran Forward Bloc leader held Congress and its president Sonia Gandhi “solely responsible” for the dissolution of the Lok Sabha, and said, “It is unfortunate that BJP-led coalition will act as caretaker government and conduct the mid-term polls”.

Ghosh flayed Congress for aspiring to form a minority government and “ignore” the possibility of a third front.