Left leaders meet to review poll outcome

NEW DELHI: After one of their worst ever performances in the general elections, leaders of the Left parties met here today and decided to work as a "responsible" opposition in Parliament.

The four parties, whose total tally in Parliament plummeted from 61 in 2004 to 24, also decided to continue to work in cooperation with their non-Congress non-BJP allies like BSP, AIADMK, TDP, JD(S) and BJD.

The meeting was attended by CPI(M)'s Prakash Karat, S R Pillai and Sitaram Yechury, CPI's A B Bardhan and D Raja, RSP's T J Chandrachoodan and Forward Bloc's Debabrata Biswas and D Devarajan.

"The Left will work as a responsible opposition in Parliament. The Left parties will continue our cooperation with the non-Congress, non-BJP allies," the parties said in a statement read out by Bardhan after the 90-minute meeting.

While Karat did not respond to questions by the waiting media, Bardhan said the four Left parties would individually review the reverses suffered by them and then meet again to "come to a collective assessment on how to over the shortcomings and move ahead."