Left won't allow UPA to go ahead with nuke deal: Yechury

Hyderabad, Feb 9 (UNI) at the Communist Party of India (M) will not allow the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance Government to have strategic ties with the US and go ahead with Indo-US nuclear deal, party Politburo member Sitaram Yechury said today.

The BJP was keen that the Left Parties withdraw support to the Manmohan Singh Government so that it could come back to power, he claimed at a press conference here.

''We will not allow the BJP to gain at any cost,'' he asserted reacting to the BJP's challenge to withdraw support.

''We are certainly unhappy with the economic policies pursued by the UPA Government,''Mr Yechury admitted, adding that the party would exert pressure on the Centre to stick to the Common Minimum Programme, the basis for the Left's support to the Government.

The CPI(M) would finalise ways and means at its National Conference at Coimbatore beginning next month to evolve a 'third alternative' to the policies pursued by both the Congress and the BJP.

Asked whether there was scope of an alliance with the TDP, he said the CPI(M) had sent drafts of its political and economic policies to that party. ''We will decide only after receiving a reply,'' he added.

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