Lok Sabha polls 2014: Left parties to help provide alternative government, says CPM

NASHIK: Senior CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury said here today that the left parties can help to provide an alternative non-Congress and non-BJP government at the Centre with the help of 11 like-minded parties after the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

He alleged that both the BJP and the Congress are similar when it comes to issues of economy or corruption and alleged that both parties indulge in "political match fixing".

Interacting with reporters today, Yechury stressed the need to have proper infrastructure in the country to create employment for youth and to boost economic development.

Yechury questioned why the BJP's prime ministerial candidate was contesting from Vadodara in Gujarat and Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh, if there was a "Modi wave".

When asked to comment about Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi's Latur public meeting, where he described Modi's Gujarat model of development as a "toffee model", Yechury said, "I will not call it toffee model, but Gujarat model is taking farmers' land at cheap prices and giving it to industrialists at concessional rates".

Giving example of Tata's Nano car project which was shifted from West Bengal to Gujarat, he said that the Gujarat government had given a subsidy of Rs 60,000 on every Nano car, but the problems faced by the common man remained.

He described the Gujarat model of development as one which "makes the rich even more rich and makes the poor, even more poor".

When asked which parties would participate in an alternative non-Congress and non-BJP government, Yechury replied it would be decided after the polls.