CPI(M) top leaders to finalise strategy for assembly polls

New Delhi, Mar 9: The top leadership of the CPI(M) will meet here tomorrow for three days to finalise the strategy for the forthcoming assembly polls in five states, discuss the union budget and BJP's attempts to communalise politics, among other things.

''The main agenda of the one-day Polit Bureau, followed by two-day central committee deliberations, is to finalise the final strategy for assembly polls in West Bengal, Kerala, Asom, Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry,'' CPI(M) senior leader and Polit Bureau member M K Pandhey told UNI.

Party veteran and former West Bengal Chief Minister Jyoti Basu, his successor Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, former General Secretary H S Surjeet, incumbent Prakash Karat, and other members, including Sitaram Yechury, are likely to attend the Polit Bureau meeting, while party senior Central Committee members- Basudev Achariya, W R Wardharan and Niltopal Basu -- are to participate in the CC meeting.

The three-day deliberations to be held at the party headquarters- A K Gopalan Bhawan -- assume special significance as this is being held against a backdrop of the widening gap between the UPA government and the Left.

The four Left parties -- the CPI(M), the CPI, the RSP and the Forward bloc -- are greatly upset with the Manmohan Singh government for its taking '' unilateral decisions'' like lowering of the interest rate on the EPF, allowing 49 per cent FDI in single brand in retail brand, taking anti-Iran stand at the IAEA, and tilting country's independent foreign policy to suit the interests of the US.

While the CPI(M) is yet to finalise its review and analysis of the Congress-led UPA government's 20-month performance, the CPI has already found it wanting on foreign affairs and economic matters, while complimenting it for enacting the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme and launching of the Bharat Nirman and National Rural Health Mission, among other things.

UNI