Next VP from Left parties or UPA allies: CPI (M)

New Delhi, June 25: The CPI(M) today threw broad hints that the next Vice-President would be from the Left parties or the UPA allies even as the party is not coming out with any name to ensure that the focus on the Presidential poll is not distracted.

Sources confirmed that the Left has been offered the post of the Vice-President by the UPA leadership in lieu of its open support to its Presidential nominee Pratibha Patil.

Briefing newspersons on the second day deliberations of the party Central Committee Meet, which began yesterday, Party Polit Bureau member Sitaram Yechury, however, claimed that no formal discussion on the issue had taken place so far.

But the broad view of the party is that when the Congress has chosen its Presidential condidiate, the Left or any other UPA ally should be allowed to choose the Vice-President whose term ends in August, Mr Yechury said during an interaction with the media at the AK Gopalan Bhawan.

Party General Secretary Prakash Karat, West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, other senior leaders- M K Pandhe, Biman Bose, Basudeb Acharia, Mohammad Salim, Nilotpal Basu, Brinda Karat and V R Vardharajan- are among those attending the deliberations of the 85-member CC.

"But the nominee for the office of the Vice-President must possess impeccable secular credentials, a political personality who is also well versed in the functioning of the Rajya Sabha," Mr Yechury said in response to a specific query.

Mr Yechury, the party Parliamentary group leader, said the Left would play a more decisive role in deciding the next Vice-President and propose the name.

Party Patriarch Jyoti Basu has already talked to the party leadership in Delhi to contact Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee to sound him and know his mind for the office of the VP.

The sources insisted that the party was not coming out with specific names for the office of the Vice-President as it did not want that the Presidential poll process was derailed and lost its focus." At present our whole priority is to ensure the victory of Ms Patil." The issue of the Vice-President would come up in a proper way only after the Presidential polls process is over, the sources said adding that" we have yet to suggest names." Replying to a specific question about the fate of both the suspended members of the Polit Bureau- Kerala Chief Minister V S Achutanandan and senior party leader Pinarayi Vijayan who had traded charges in public, Mr Yechury said the issue would come up tomorrow, the final and third day of the party Polit Bureau and CC meet when both the leaders are present.

The CPI (M) in its last meeting here had suspended both the Kerala Chief Minister and party State Secretary from the membership of the Polit Bureau although it had clarified that both the leaders would continue to discharge their other official duties.

UNI

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