'Left support to UPA to avoid mid-term poll'

Bhopal, July 5: A Communist Party of India (Marxist) Polit Bureau member M K Pandhe tody said the Left parties were extending support to the Congress-led UPA government, despite its wrong policies, to avoid mid-term elections.

''We do not want to send out a message that midterm poll was forced on the country by the Left parties, notwithstanding the fact that several UPA constituents were also critical of various measures taken by the government'', Dr Pandhe told newspersons here.

He said the Left parties would launch a month-long country-wide campaign against the government's wrong policies in August. Despite this, if the UPA government failed to change its policies, then the Polit Bureau, in its next meeting after August, would be constrained to take a decisive action, he added.

Along with many UPA constituents, he said, several NDA constituents like the Telugu Desam Party and Janata Dal (United), besides Samajwadi Party, DMK and BSP had supported the Left parties' stand against the government's wrong policies.

Replying to a question, Dr Pandhe said the Left parties had no plan to float a third front merely for elections. ''In fact, the present situation was not mature enough for floating such a front,'' he said, adding symbolic fight against commnal forces will not strengthen the scope of a third front as in the case of former Prime Minister V P Singh's Jan Morcha.

The Leftists were of the view that a third front minus the Congress and the BJP should be formed on the basis of solid programmes and to unitedly work in public interest, Dr Pandhe said.

The Left parties will not join the government until it is in a position to take decisions, he said, The recent Assembly elections in five states showed the decline in support to the Congress and it would be totally eroded if the wrong economic policies were continued, the CPI(M) leader said.

Referring to Indo-US nuclear deal, he said electricity would become costlier if we used imported uranium for power generation ignoring coal and thorium abundantly available in the country.

''Nuclear power should be developed on indigenous resources'', Dr Pandhe added.

UNI