Crack appears in UPA, Pragatisheel Morcha may fill void- Left

New Delhi, Feb 12 (UNI) Signalling intensification of efforts to forge the Third alternative at the national level, the Left parties and the allies in the UPA including the NCP and the RJD have come together for coming civic polls in Delhi to take on both the Congress and the BJP.

They squarely blamed the Congress for" weakening" the UPA by its failure to carry along the allies in the ruling coalition and the Left parties who are extending an outside support to the Manmohan Singh government.

Talking to UNI, the top leaders of the CPI, CPI(M) and Forward Bloc said a similar Morcha might be formed for the UP assembly polls as well. It could dent the remaining base of the Congress in the Hindi heartland, they said.

CPI leaders A B Bardhan and Shamim Faizi said it is obvious that after half of the tenure of the UPA government, not only the supporting parties like the Left, but also the constituents themselves had started charting a new course for a non-Congress, non- BJP alternative.

The CPI leaders said the future of the Congress to reach an understanding with the Left in three states which are going to polls had further widened the gap.

" The formation of the Pragatisheel Jan Morcha in Delhi is an indication of growing cleavage within the UPA. The allies in the coalition like the NCP, RJD and LJP have joined the Morcha to throw out both the Congress and the BJP in the civic elections in Delhi and most probably would work on similar lines for UP polls, likely to be held in April," Mr Bardhan, the CPI General Secretary, said.

Mr Bardhan, the veteran Communist and freedom fighter, observed that the new Front seemed to be eying on the vote banks of minorities, Dalits and the OBCs." The Congress has always based its electoral tactics on a dominant caste from among the majority community and the minorities." CPI National Secretary Shamim Faizi said now the Morcha might provide an alternative to the minorities who appeared having shifted away from the Congress and had been the main stay of the Samajwadi Party in UP.

" The Congress by using the Sachar Committee report on the status of Muslims wants to re-assert itself on the minorities but it seems that it has not cut much ice," Mr Faizi said adding that the SP managed to grab even ten seats in the minorities-dominated areas in Maharashtra.'' It has also gained a foothold in Nagar and Akola," Mr Faizi, editor of the party Weekly New Age, said.

CPI(M) senior leader and Polit Bureau member M K Pandhe said," this is a positive development. Some parties are making serious efforts to prove an alternative to both the Congress which had played havoc with country's indigenous economy and the BJP which was out to dismember it on communal lines.'' Referring to the " weakening" of the Congress, Mr Pandhe feared that its position in Punjab, which goes to polls tomorrow, is bad.

The incumbency factor seemes to have played its part there." In Uttarakhand, too, its position is not that good." The trend pointed out towards" weakening" of the Congress base.

"The NCP is also going away.. You have seen it happening in Maharashtra civic polls. A crack appears to have developed in the UPA." Besides, the Left leaders said, the failure of the Congress to win the Dalits back to its fold is another" sore point, which might impact the UP polls where the Ms Maywati-led BSP has sway over them.

And a small section of this population is under the influence of Mr Paswan. Some sections might cross over to the newly-floated Pragatisheel Morcha.'' Forward Bloc General Secretary Debrata Biswas said people needed an alternative because they did not want to go back to the BJP in absence of the Congress.

UNI