No Left shoulder for PM

NEW DELHI: The Left on Tuesday asked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to stop day dreaming about a second tenure with its support. ���The prime minister has been routinely claiming that doors are open for an alliance with the Left. There is no question of supporting a Congress-led government,��� said CPI general secretary AB Bardhan.

Despite the Left categorically ruling out backing a Congress-led dispensation, Congress has been maintaining that it could revive ties with the Left. Congress is hoping that the compulsion to keep BJP out will come into play after the polls and force parties in the Left for a rethink on their position.

The Left will also find it difficult to take a U-turn as Congress leaders have unleashed a vicious attack against it. The prime minister, who described the Left as a regressive force, had said it has always been on the wrong side of history. ���When Mahatma Gandhi started Quit India movement the Left did not participate in it.

When India became Independent, they said this independence is not for real. When Indira Gandhi ushered in Green Revolution, the Left opposed it saying it was only for the benefit of foreign seed companies. Similarly, when Rajiv Gandhi started communications revolution they opposed it saying it will take away jobs,��� the prime minister had said. Sonia Gandhi���s daughter Priyanka Vadra repeated the prime minister���s charge against the Left in Amethi on Friday. The Left would find it difficult to coexist with Congress after the latter heaping insults on it.

But in the immediate run, the Left is using the prime ministerial assertions about the possibility of a tie up with the Left to drive home its point that the Mamata Banerjee-Congress alliance is not sustainable. The Trinamool Congress leadership is quite uncomfortable with the pro-Left statements. Ms Banerjee is fighting the polls on the promise to end the Left���s hold over the affairs of the Centre. The Trinamool Congress manifesto, too, does not share much in common with Congress as it has opposed SEZs, disinvestment and privatisation.