UPA govt to last full term: Karat

He, however, made it clear that if the UPA government did not perform well or failed to keep the alliance intact, there could be trouble. ‘‘The onus of keeping the allies united rests with the Congress, which heads the UPA. We are only sentinels of the people,’’ he stressed.

While extending support to the Congress government, the Left expected it to demonstrate by its performance that it was different from the BJP. ‘‘We are not supporting the Congress to enable it to pursue the discredited policies of the BJP. We will not hesitate to oppose the Congress if it deviates from the CMP,’’ he warned.

Regarding the ‘third alternative’, Karat noted that at its recent conclave, his party had only said it would strive to put together a third front when the political situation matured for such an initiative. ‘‘It should emerge as a result of struggles and on the basis of shared ideology and is not an electoral strategy,’’ he stressed. Asked about reports that chief minister Jayalalithaa had sought a meeting with him when she visited Delhi recently, he quipped that he himself came to know about it from the media.

He also described the Jayalalithaa government as one of the most anti-democratic governments in the country, implying there was no way the CPM would look towards reviving relationship with the AIADMK.