Bardhan spurns Vice-President's post

New Delhi, July 15: In a categorical assertion, CPI General Secretary A B Bardhan today said he was not the candidate for the post of the Vice-President even if there was a consensus on his name.

''I know that neither my name will be proposed nor will it be acceptable to all the Left and the UPA allies,'' Mr Bardhan told mediapersons on the conclusion of the party's three-day National Council meet.

Mr Bardhan's comment was in conflict with the party line which till yesterday said it had no reservations about fielding him for the coveted post even though CPI (M) General Secretary Prakash Karat told a TV channel on Thursday that the Vice-President should not necessarily be a political personality and opened the door for a historian, academician or an economist for the election.

On a persistent query, Mr Bardhan, the veteran Communist and freedom fighter, said the Left parties would meet here on July 19 to thrash out the issue and exuded confidence that a suitable candidate acceptable to the Left, the UPA and even the UNPA would be found out.

When reminded that he was the most suitable candidate for the Vice-President in the given situation, Mr Bardhan retorted , ''I am not the candidate even if there is a consensus on my name.

I am the General Secretary of the CPI. I have many obligations to discharge till the end of March 2008 when the party Congress takes place.'' But sources told sources that Mr Karat held a meeting with Mr Bardhan at the Ajoy Bhawan, the CPI headquarters, today where they were understood to have discussed the subject.

Even if Mr Bardhan insisted he was not influenced by Mr Karat's recent statement, another CPI top leader confided to UNI that the ''major Left party does not want the younger brother to occupy an important constitutional office.'' Mr Bardhan, earlier briefing newspersons on the party NC deliberations, made a strong case for not only the Left to review the UPA government's three-year performance but also for the Manmohan Singh government in order to face the general elections in 2009.

Party National Secretary D Raja and senior leader S Sudhakar Reddy were also present at the press conference.

On the criteria for the post of the Vice President, Mr Bardhan said the candidate must be a secular person, not necessarily belonging to a political party but well versed in politics, of high moral standing and the one who can conduct the proceedings of the Rajya Sabha. The CPI leader said the party NC took strong exception to the BJP which was facing a total rout over its ''slanderous, half-truth campaign against UPA presidential candidate Mrs Pratibha Patil''.

To a query on UNPA leader Mrs Jayalalithaa's suggestion that the new front would cooperate with the Left on Vice President's post if the latter gave up ties with the UPA, Mr Bardhan quipped, ''This we have to decide, not anybody else.'' On the achievements of the UPA government, the CPI leader quoted the National Rural Employment Guarantee scheme, the Right to Information and Tribal Forest Rights and some steps to revive the PSUs and going slow on disinvestment among other things.

But it took strong view of the government's move to allow FDI in retail sector, failure to contain agrarian crisis with the farmers still continuing with suicides, sops to the big Corporate in the name of SEZ and others.

While calling for a nationwide movement for implementation of land reforms as done in West Bengal and Kerala, the Left party applauded the role of the party's Andhra Pradesh unit for launching such a movement in the state facing police repression, mass arrest and false cases foisted against the party activists.

The party also decided to convene its 20th Congress in the last week of March next year in Hyderabad.

On the ongoing Indo-US nuclear deal, the party warned against ''hustling India into the Pact and demanded the government to withdraw the joint Naval exercise in the Bay of Bengal.'' It also took note of the ''Operation Silence'' in Pakistan and hoped that the assurance to root out terrorism as made by President Pervez Musharraf would be truly implemented.

UNI

Related Stories

>