The Congress on Monday played down the CPI(M) adopting a draft political resolution ruling out “any electoral alliance or understanding with the Congress.”
Asked if the CPI(M) move is a setback to Opposition unity ahead of 2019 polls, Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi said, “It is not necessary for us to respond at a stage when they themselves say that they have not taken a final decision. It will be taken at the plenary [party congress]. And it is too premature right now to talk about alliances.”
But former minister and senior Congress leader K.V. Thomas was blunt in saying that if the CPI(M) didn’t revise its stand then it would be committing another “historic blunder.”
Unity message
“All the like-minded parties must come together if you want to take on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the RSS. We can give a message that we are all united. But if they continue with this policy [keeping distance from the Congress] then they would be committing another ‘historic blunder’ as in 1996,” Prof. K V Thomas, Congress Lok Sabha member from Ernakulam, told to a media on the phone.
For the CPI(M), ‘historic blunder’ is referred to the episode when the party’s highest executive body, the Central Committee, didn’t allow former West Bengal Chief Minister Jyoti Basu to lead the United Front coalition government as Prime Minister.
Admitting that the Congress and the CPI(M) cannot work together in Kerala where the two parties are bitter political rivals, Prof. Thomas said the “country as a whole needs a larger message.”
Economic issues
He said the two parties were not ideologically very different except their differences over economic issues. “If there are issues, we can settle it like we did during UPA I government,” said the Congress MP.
The Congress leader said the Left parties were weak outside Kerala and were losing support even in former strongholds like West Bengal and Tripura. So, he said a tie-up with the Congress would help the Left.
“We can give a message that we are all united for the sake of the country. The Left parties, especially the CPI(M), must think about it and change their position,” he said.