Karat, Bardhan to address UNPA rally

The Left leaders’ willingness to address a UNPA rally comes against the backdrop of statements made by Karat and Bardhan on the need for a third alternative. By publicly joining hands with some of the most virulent anti-Congress parties, the Left will tell the Congress that it has other options too.

Earlier, the Left, which was locked in a bitter battle with the Government over the nuclear deal, did not want to further antagonise the Congress by publicly aligning with the UNPA.

Meanwhile, SP leader Amar Singh indicated that peace with the Congress is a possibility in the emerging realignment. “The ideologies of the Congress and the SP are similar. Both have a common enemy in Bahujan Samaj Party in Uttar Pradesh. Congress leaders like Salman Kursheed have made bitter attacks on me and Mulayamji. We have also reacted sharply, which we should not have done,” said Singh, adding, “We have built up UNPA as a force and so, no decision vis-à-vis Congress will be taken in isolation by SP. It will have to be collective decision of all the partners of the UNPA and the Left on how to deal with the Congress.”

He wondered why the Congress targeted the SP and its leaders while its leaders did business with DMK, whom the Congress had once accused of Rajiv Gandhi’s murder, and Sharad Pawar who had raised a stink over Sonia Gandhi’s foreign origin issue.

“Both the Congress and the SP should not take this rivalry to the level of personal acrimony. There is no relevance for our old-style non-Congress politics in UP where it has been reduced to complete insignificance,” he said.