UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi today visited ailing CPI(M) general secretary Harkishan Singh Surjeet and assured him that she would do her best to bring all secular parties in one alliance for the forthcoming Bihar polls.Sonia spent almost 30 minutes at Surjeet’s Teen Murti Lane residence this afternoon.Surjeet had to be hospitalised in Bangkok on his way to Ho Chi Minh City to attend the Vietnam Communist Party conference earlier this month. On his return, he had to undergo treatment at Metro Hospital in Noida, where his visitors included Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.Coming as it did in the wake of the dissolution of the Bihar Assembly, Sonia’s visit was significant. Also present was senior CPI(M) Politburo member Sitaram Yechury.Left sources said it was Surjeet who could not keep himself away from a discussion on Bihar. The CPI(M) general secretary has all along felt that the Congress could have done better than try to snatch political space from both Yadavs—Mulayam in Uttar Pradesh and Laloo Prasad in Bihar—at this juncture.
