Congress-Trinamool rift decided our stand: Prakash Karat

KOLKATA: The widening rift between the Congress and Trinamool Congress made the CPI-M back Pranab Mukherjee in the presidential race, party general secretary Prakash Karat said on Monday.

In an article in the Communist Party of India-Marxist's Bengali daily 'Ganashakati', Karat said abstaining from the elections would have been tantamount to lining up with the Trinamool and damaged his party's prospects nationally.

Karat's statement comes days after the presidential polls exposed cracks in the Left's unity.

While the CPI-M and Forward Bloc decided to support Mukherjee, the Communist Party of India and Revolutionary Socialist Party decided to abstain from voting. Unhappy with the CPI-M's stand, its upcoming leader Prosenjit Bose resigned from the party, which hit back by expelling him.

"In the UPA, there was a rift between the TMC and the Congress over the candidate to be proposed. The TMC has been at odds with the UPA government on various issues. The candidature of Pranab Mukherjee in the current presidential election has led to a deepening of the rift.

"The rift within the ruling alliance is something that the CPI-M took into account when deciding its stand," he said.

Having failed to get A.P.J. Abdul Kalam as candidate, the Trinamool is left with the option of either abstaining or supporting Mukherjee, he said.

He said the CPI-M also took into account the rifts in the UPA and NDA. Karat denied that supporting the UPA candidate had "diluted the Left's struggle against the neo-liberal policies of the center".