See writing on the wall in Kerala: Left to Sonia

New Delhi, Mar 6 (UNI) Joining issues with Congress chief and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi for slamming the Left for ''their politics of obstruction and politics of violence'', the Left parties today asked her to give up the ''old Communist bashing'' and see the ''writing on the wall;; ahead of the Kerala Assembly polls.

The CPI(M) and the CPI said Ms Gandhi had launched a vociferous campaign against the Left in Kerala, ''where they were poised to come back to power.'' At a press conference in Parliament House precincts, CPI(M) Floor leader in the Rajya Sabha Nilotpal Basu said her speech reflected that the Congress was in great difficulty in Kerala.

''We symphathise with her.'' he said.

Ms Gandhi, in her Kochi speech, had reportedly flayed ''the Left politics of obstruction, politics of violence, politics of gherao and politics of sloganeering''.

While advising her party MPs and MLAs in the state not to take the Opposition Left Front lightly, she also rejected what she called ''the policy of false propaganda by which serious national issues are trivialised''.

She took a swipe at the Left, though indirectly, for their ''anti-government'' stand on the nuclear issue and for organising a big campaign against the visit of US President George W Bush to India last week.

Replying to a specific query, Mr Basu said the Left parties were part of the coalition even if they were not part of the government.

''We have got 61 MPs in the Lok Sabha not because of any one's magnanimity, but becuase of fighting for the causes of the man on the street-- the unemployed, farmers, workers and the destitutes. We made to Parliament also taking some of the allies in the UPA.'' He said the Congress chief should not forget that the UPA government at the Centre was a minority government, which survived on the outside support of the Left.

CPI National Secretary Shamim Faizi said the Congress chief, out of desperation and having been cornered, had launched a vociferous campaign against the Left in Kerala where it was poised to come back to power.

''Being on the defensive on the nuclear deal and the Bush visit, Ms Gandhi is taking shelter behind the old Communist bashing attitude,'' he said and asserted that as the Chairperson of the National Advisory Council, she owed an explanation to the nation on the nuclear deal with the US which even the scientific community found against national interests.

However, Forward Bloc National Secretary G Devrajan did not find any thing wrong with Ms Gandhi projecting her party in Kerala.

UNI KSA/YJ VD KN1813