Yechury not opposed to Left stance: Raja

Chennai, July 16: Communist Party of India (CPI) Secretary D Raja today denied media reports that party leader Sitaram Yechury was opposed to the Left parties' stance of voting against the Manmohan Singh Government during the crucial trust vote on July 22.

''The reports are baseless. He is with us. There is no difference of opinion among the Leftists on the issue,'' he said categorically. The Communist leader was talking to newspersons at the airport, on his arrival along with CPI(M) General Secretary Prakash Karat to attend a public meeting in the city. Mr Raja said Speaker Somnath Chatterjee would take an appropriate decision at the appropriate time on quitting the Speaker's post.

''He is a qualified person and he can take right decisions after considering issues in detail.'' On whether the Left parties would join hands with the Congress after the confidence motion to keep the ''communal'' BJP at bay, he said ''our only objective now is to vote against the Manmohan Singh Government and stall the Indo-US civil nuclear deal. We will take a decision on other matters, considering the prevailing circumstances at that time.'' Asked if voting with the BJP against the Centre did not contravene its secular principles, Mr Raja said the Leftists were acting based on their own views and have not allied with anyone to vote against the Centre. ''We will cast vote against the Government to stall the nuke deal in any manner. We do not know about the other parties, their principles may differ.'' Mr Karat declined to address the media and replied in the negative to a query on whether he would meet Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and DMK President M Karunanidhi, one of the strong supporters of the Manmohan Singh Government. ''I am not here for that, I have come only to attend the public meeting,'' he retorted.

UNI