Setting at rest all talks over a Left-Congress tie-up in the future, CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat on Thursday made it clear that the Left parties will not support the Congress after the next elections. Karat said such a move would be dubbed as “opportunism”.In comments that would surely raise the hackles of his new-found friend, BSP supremo Mayawati, the CPI(M) general secretary said that his party does not look at “projecting an individual” for the Prime Minister’s post but hoped that the Left would be able to present a third force in the next elections.“Be very clear. I didn’t use the words Third Alternative. I have not talked about the Third Alternative. Our party’s understanding of the Third Alternative is not some combination to fight elections. The Third Alternative has to be in terms of policies and programmes,” he said.His comments on the post-poll scenario, the first after the Left’s acrimonious separation from the Congress-led UPA earlier this month, came in an interview with CPI(M)-promoted Malayalam television channel Kairali.“We are going to call for the defeat of the BJP and the Congress. After that if we support the Congress, I don’t know, I think people will accuse us of opportunism. So why do you think that there can be no alternative to either a BJP-led Government or a Congress-led Government?” Karat replied to a question on supporting the Congress after the polls for forming a Government.Karat said the Left was not like the DMK, RJD or the NCP, which are part of the UPA along with the Congress. “We cannot have any understanding or alliance with the Congress party. We are in no way bound to support the Congress-led coalition,” he added.He said the Left had allowed the Government to conduct preliminary negotiations on the India specific safeguards agreement with the IAEA on the assurance that the Government would take the UPA-Left committee into confidence before taking the next step.“This assurance was given at a meeting which was attended by the Prime Minister, (Congress chief) Sonia Gandhi and (External Affairs Minister) Pranab Mukherjee,” Karat said and noted that this assurance at the highest level had been violated.Asked whether he had overestimated the trustworthiness of the Congress, he replied “It seems it was a mistake”.When his attention was drawn to his CPI counterpart A B Bardhan’s statement about not ruling out the prospect of the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister becoming the Prime Minister, he said, “We don’t look at it in terms of projecting an individual.”“He (Bardhan) was asked, do you think she (Mayawati) can become PM. He said, yes why not. That is his way of saying that he has no objection to any particular leader becoming the PM,” Karat said.Asked whether that meant Mayawati would not be projected as the Prime Minister, he said he was not ready to say anything as “it is too premature”, indicating that the Left parties have not yet taken a decision on it.“In this country, there have been PMs who were never expected to become the Prime Minister. There were others who people could not think of as PM but turned out to be good prime ministerial material. So why do we need to get into this debate. It is not a meaningful one,” he added.When contacted, Bardhan told The Indian Express: “At this point ten parties, including the BSP and the Left, are campaigning individually and collectively on five issues against the Government. It is a preparatory ground and do not anticipate any step. In politics, we should go step by step.”
