Third alternative to take shape in party congress: Yechuri

Agartala, Mar 11 (UNI) CPI(M) polit bureau member and senior Left leader Sitaram Yechuri today asserted that the forthcoming party congress on March 29 at Coimbatore would decide the formation of the Third Front as an alternative to India's two main political parties -the Congress and the BJP-- to contain communal forces.

Talking to UNI here today, Mr Yechuri, who attended the Left Front's victory rally here at Stable ground, said the Third Front cannot be made merely an electoral alliance but should be founded on the three principles of consistent opposition to communalism, agreement on a Common Minimum Programme and a firm commitment to an independent foreign policy and pro-people economic policy.

He, however, stated that the party congress would review the CPI(M)'s efforts to spread its base in the Hindi belt, take stock of the party's functioning and decide the future strategies besides, mooting the formation of alternative front with a number of UPA and UNPA constituents.

'' We will see how far we have succeeded in meeting the tasks we had set in the last party congress and what steps should be taken for future,'' Mr Yechuri said, adding that the process of third alternative had been initiated in 16th party congress in 1998 and hopefully it would materialise before the next Parliamentary election.

Reaffirming the party's stand on Telengana issue, Mr Yechuri maintained that creation of states considering cast or practice based was not possible in India, as it was against the spirit of the Constitution.

''We can support the language based state creation for better understanding and strengthening of the democracy,'' he said and added that Left parties would never support any move backed by communal sentiment.

The CPM leader also said the party's 19th congress would be held in Coimbatore for six days and 800 delegates from all over the world would attend it.

UNI BB KK/RSC RC RS1814