Third Front needed to stop communal forces: Yechury

Mysore, Jan 21 (UNI) CPI(M) politburo member Sitaram Yechury today strongly stressed the need for a third alternative front to prevent the communal BJP from coming to power.

Addressing the 19th state-level conference of the party here, he said the third front was required not only at the time of elections but also for the overall prosperity of the country.

The third front should focus on issues faced by the people by chalking out common minimum programmes, he added.

The CPM was working towards this process by inviting all secular forces to join hands together at this juncture when the communal forces were trying to gain an upper hand, he said.

The secular parties that had earlier joined hands with communal forces should realise their mistake and stay away from them, Mr Yechury said and referred to the JD(S) in Karnataka, which extended support to the BJP in government formation, realised their mistake later and stopped the saffron party from coming to power.

As some wrong decisions taken by the Congress-led UPA Government at the Centre was hurting the Left parties extending outside support, there was an urgent need for the formation of a Third Front, he said and sought the support of secular-minded parties to join hands with his party in this regard.

Defending the party's strong opposition on various issues taken by the UPA government, Mr Yechury said the Left parties would vehemently oppose the US nuclear deal.

The Left parties were also unhappy with the UPA government as the expected amount of investment in the agriculture sector agreed in the comman minimum programme had not been allocated. This had resulted in more than 20,000 farmers committing suicide during the last four years, he pointed out.

He said the Left parties were also asking the UPA government to take immediate steps to arrest the skyrocketing of prices of essential commodities.

Stating that the left parties were extending support to the UPA government to stop the communal forces from gaining power, Mr Yechury said as long as the left parties supports the government it would not allow privatisation of the public sector units and oppose anti-people policies of the Congress party.

More than 1,000 party delegates from all over the state were taking part in the four-day conference, which would also discuss the upcoming elections in Karnataka during the next three days.

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