Left frowns at anointment of Mulayam as UNPA's PM candidate

New Delhi, Feb 19 (UNI) The nomination of Samjawadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav as the UNPA prime ministerial candidate has not gone down well with the Left Parties and they have cautioned the Congress against entertaining the proposal of early general elections, saying it would be like committing political hara-kiri.

Differences of opinion , meanwhile, persist among the Left parties on the question of including the Congress in the proposed third alternative.

While the CPI(M) has dubbed the Congress a ''party of monopoly and landlords'', the CPI has maintained that it should not be excluded from the secular camp to prevent the BJP from staging a comeback at the Centre.

Left leaders' observations came against the backdrop of the UNPA unveiling its roadmap to the Centre endorsing its chairman Mulayam Singh as the prime ministerial candidate and Congress spokesman Abhishek Singhvi dismissed the Left demand that the UPA should seek a fresh mandate if it is to go ahead with the Indo-US nuclear deal.

On the UNPA's naming Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav as the prime ministerial candidate, CPI(M) senior leader and Party Polit Bureau member M K Pandhe said, ''This issue should be decided only after the polls. Nobody can decide before the polls.'' CPI floor leader in the Lok Sabha Gurudas Dasgupta said, ''Let them make an announcement.'' Forward Bloc national secretary G Devrajan said even as the UNPA has the liberty to decide its course of action, the time is not ripe for such an announcement.

On the reports that the Congress is all set to sacrifice the UPA government for the sake of the pact and go in for early Lok Sabha polls between October and November this year as it feels that the strong 300-million middle class are with it on the accord, all the Left leaders were unanimous that if the Congress decided on that course, it would be suicidal for it.

Mr Pandhe wondered as to what made the Congress so sanguine about it getting the support of the working class and the middle class as ''all the successive budgets have not provided any relief to the income tax payees'' and besides the interest rate on the Provident Fund is coming down. The price rise of all the essential commodities have made their lives miserable''.

CPI(M) senior leader Mohammad Salim said the UPA government had not got the people's support or a majority in Parliament to execute the deal. From the very beginning the Left has made it clear to the Congress that its support to it is based on the Common Minimum Programme. ''The government cannot decide on the issue unilaterally.'' He said the government should not abandon the traditionally followed independent foreign policy nor is advisable in the given world scenario wherein the US imperialism is fastly losing its grip.

''Even then if the Congress thinks that it can go ahead, it will not only betray the basis of on which the UPA was formed but will also betray its own rank and file,'' Mr Salim said, adding that '' occasionally some of the Congress leaders adopt a suicidal tendency. The Left at the best can advise not to take any step which is suicidal.'' On the inclusion of the Congress in the proposed third alternative as viewed by the Left, while Mr Dasgupta said the Congress is still a secular party, Mr Pandhe said, ''The Congress is a secular but not a democratic party.'' ''When we talk of the third alternative, we say it is opposed to both the Congress and the BJP. So how can the Congress become a part of such a political grouping?'' Mr Pandhe added.

Mr Devrajan said the Congress is no more a combative secular party as demonstrated by it in the recent Gujarat polls.

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