Non-Congress, non-BJP parties will fare well in general election: Prakash Karat

Political parties other than the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will do well in the 2014 general elections as they have substantial support among the voters, Prakash Karat, General Secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), said here on Monday.

Those who thought that the Congress and BJP were the only two forces and alternatives to one another were wrong as the two parties could not secure even 50 per cent of the votes in the last two general elections.

After the 2014 elections, there was the possibility of the “non-Congress, non-BJP” parties stitching together an alternative combination, though there may be a few pre-poll alliances at the regional level.

In these circumstances, the CPI(M)’s efforts would be to put forward alternative economic and political policies and work with all those parties to strengthen their electoral prospects, as the CPI(M) was confident that the “non-Congress, non-BJP parties” would fare well and be able to put together an effective alternative combination.

Mr. Karat was addressing a meeting got up as part of the centenary celebrations of former West Bengal Chief Minister Jyoti Basu.

The voters would reject the corrupt Congress and communal BJP and vote for secular democratic forces, some of which were successfully running governments in various States. And when the parties form the next government at the Centre, the Left would push for policies that were followed by Jyoti Basu during his continuous rule for seven terms in West Bengal.

Jyoti Basu was a clean politician who provided a corruption-free administration to the people of West Bengal, said State general secretary of the party G. Ramakrishnan. The party’s Member of Parliament from Coimbatore, P.R. Natarajan also spoke.

In a resolution passed at a meeting earlier in the day, the CPI(M) urged the Central Government to stop proceeding with the recommendations of the K. Kasturirangan Committee on protecting the Western Ghats. Aside from deleting the contentious recommendations, the Government should consider the suggestions and demands of the tribal people and labourers and then redraft the recommendations.

It said that the Government, in deciding to declare 37 per cent of the Western Ghats as protected area, had not correctly reviewed the people's suggestions.There was fear that development activities would be hampered. The Tamil Nadu Government had also opposed the implementation of the recommendations.

(Courtesy : The Hindu)