CPM to discuss waning influence of Congress

NEW DELHI: In a clear indication of the CPM’s plans to up the ante against the Congress and the government led by it, the party has decided to discuss the “declining influence” of the Congress across the country. The CPM, which considers the Uttar Pradesh electoral outcome as a clear signal of the growing marginalisation of the Congress in the Hindi heartland, can be expected to devise ways to ensure that the disaffection for the Congress does not rub off on it.

Sources said the politburo meeting on May 25 and 26 will examine the UPA’s performance and its political repercussions on the Left, which extends support from outside to the government. “We will discuss how the Left should deal with the political situation in the light of the declining influence of the UPA,” a politburo member said.

A string of defeats for the Congress have caused unease within the Left, which feels it is time to review relations with the UPA at the centre. Though some of the CPM’s top leaders have made it clear that the party has no intentions of toppling the government, a section within the CPM favours a rearrangement of the terms of relationship with the ruling alliance. The party, which has already demanded a course correction on policies, can be expected to mount fresh pressure on the Centre for abandoning measures that it considers to be politically suicidal. CPM pressure, it may be recalled, had led to the stalling of key economic legislations.

After the Uttar Pradesh election results, in which the CPM itself lost its two seats and the Congress performed badly, the Marxist party had lashed out at the Congress saying its “decline remains a reality and the disease cannot be cured by whirlwind election campaigns by the Gandhi family.”

While distancing itself from the Congress may help the CPM in its strongholds of West Bengal and Kerala, the party is in no mood to part ways yet as it sees no alternative in the current political scenario. The CPM is at present preoccupied with efforts to find a UPA candidate for President. The issue is also likely to figure at the polit bureau meeting.