Left leaders fear Third Front parties may join hands with NDA

The Left parties are apprehensive that some of their Third Front allies may desert them to join the National Democratic Alliance. Their movement towards the NDA is expected to accelerate once the poll results are out on May 16.

“At this juncture, nothing can be done. How can we do anything on speculation?” a senior CPI leader said, speaking to Deccan Herald. “We can do something only after the results are out. We cannot respond on the basis of exit polls. We will have our National Council meeting on May 18. CPM will also have its Politburo meeting on the same day. The Left parties will also sit together on that day only to decide our future course of action,” he said.

Party sources said that some informal consultations are going on but, according to them, it hardly means anything as without knowing how many seats they are getting, they cannot decide their role.
However, they admitted that some of their allies in the Third Front may desert them to join the BJP-led NDA. “That has also happened in the past and we cannot stop it,” they said. At the moment, the Left parties especially CPM is engaged in building pressure on the Election Commission to order re-poll in at least 3200 booths.

The Left’s inability to mobilise its Third Front allies to protest against the alleged inaction of the EC is also a pointer to the emerging equations. No Third Front party is ready to antagonise Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee because they expect her to perform better in the elections and they may require her support.

That is the reason senior CPM leader Sitaram Yechury called upon all the democratic forces to join hands to resist “the violence and terror in West Bengal”.

He reminded them that a similar situation had ultimately led to the imposition of emergency in West Bengal and all the parties had to come together to fight against it.