No alternative to UPA government for now: Bardhan

New Delhi, Mar 13 (UNI) Ruling out the formation of a third front at the Centre in near future, CPI general secretary A B Bardhan has said the Left parties would continue to support the UPA government despite the present political scenario.

"It is true that we have serious differences on economic and foreign policies under the present circumstances but the Left parties do not want the communal forces to emerge as an alternative to the present government.

"We do not want the communal forces to be an alternative to this government. Right now, a secular and democratic alternative, commonly called by the name of Third Front or any other similar name, does not exist," Mr Bardhan said in BBC's ''Aapki Baat BBC Ke Saath.'' Mr Bardhan said, ''If we were to make the government fall by withdrawing support and fresh elections are held, where is the alternative? Who would come to power after the elections? Therefore, we think that such a situation has not come so far. Presently, no viable alternative is there. Had the Left been in a position to be an alternative to this government, we would have withdrawn the support by now. Such big decisions are not and cannot be taken in haste," the veteran Communist leader said.

Asked how the Left viewed its nearly two years of support to the Congress-led UPA government, the leader replied, ''Relations have definitely turned tense and a number of issues have led to direct confrontation also. I would say that during the past twenty-two months of UPA government, relations between the government and Left parties have taken a worse turn, but so far, there has been nothing to take these relations to a break-point. No issue has assumed such proportions so far that would have led us to withdraw support.'' Asked why the Left was not taking the initiative of forming the third front when some parties like Samajwadi Party and Telugu Desam were openly appealing to the Left, Mr Bardhan replied, "Their policy towards the formation of third alternative was not clear. Even if they were clear, then also the third front cannot emerge overnight.

Presently, there are no alternate policies or programmes and nor has been there any discussion on the same among the parties eager for this front.

''A third alternative cannot emerge without joint struggles on economic and foreign policies. Even before the struggle, a consensus on these policies would be required, which was presently missing'', the CPI general secretary said.

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