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The Communist Party of India (Marxist), or CPM, on October 8 ruled out being a part of a pan-India opposition alliance for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, media reports suggest. CPM is the largest party within the Left Front.
"A grand alliance on the national front is not possible. The main task in front of the CPM is to defeat the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). But if state-wise alliances are looked at, we can look into it," CPM General Secretary Sitaram Yechury said, according to a report by Mint.
Yechury, however, did not rule out a post-poll alliance. "Every election is different and it depends on what the election verdict throws up. This has been worked out in accordance with the decisions taken at the last party congress. There is no question of deviating from our party congress," he said.
As per the report, Yechury said the party’s focus would be to defeat the BJP and install an alternate secular government at the Centre after the Lok Sabha elections. "The main task before the Left and democratic forces in the assembly and Lok Sabha elections is to defeat the BJP and its allies and to ensure that an alternative secular government is formed at the Centre," he said.
CPM was holding a three-day meet of the party's central committee to discuss its electoral strategy for the 2019 general election and the upcoming assembly elections in Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Mizoram, Rajasthan and Telangana.
Speaking to mediapersons after the central committee meeting ended on October 8, Yechury said the party would contest some seats in the assembly polls in Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan with an aim of strengthen its assembly representation and would campaign to defeat the BJP in the remaining seats.
In Telangana too, CPM aims to defeat the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi and the BJP, Yechury added. CPM’s ally Communist Party of India (CPI) has joined the Congress-Telugu Desam Party (TDP) alliance to take on TRS in Telangana.
CPM currently has 16 seats in the 60-member Tripura Assembly, besides being the largest party within Kerala’s ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF) government.
The party has 26 Member of Legislative Assembly (MLAs) in West Bengal and one each in Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Maharashtra and Odisha.
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