Ahead of a Left-Congress meeting at the highest level on Tuesday on the Khammam firing episode, the Left has given out clear signals that the confrontation in Andhra Pradesh is limited to the state and it will not have any bearing on its relationship with the UPA at the Centre.
CPIM general secretary Prakash Karat and CPI general secretary AB Bardhan are expected to meet Gandhi on Tuesday in connection with the AP land controversy, which had resulted in the death of eight CPIM activists in police firing during a protest rally last month.
Following the killings, the Left had locked itself in a battle with the Congress in the state, even demanding the removal of chief minister YS Rajashekhara Reddy.
Karat on Sunday however, was quoted as sayingm that the Khamman episode will not create any adverse relations between his party and the UPA.
The CPI toed a similar line with D Raja, national secretary CPI telling FE, ?We will not demand the chief minster?s resignation. But we will ask Sonia Gandhi to give proper guidance to the state on ongoing land issue. We want the state government to distribute all the surplus land to the poor and landless.?
The Left central leadership?s stand, while contributing much in diluting differences with the Congress, typifies the emerging trend in coalition politics where political parties are arch rivals at the regional level, but overlook differences to come together on the same platform at the Centre.
The Congress too, had given enough elbow space to the Left on the Nandigram killings, by letting the state unit take up the matter strongly but refraining from putting the Buddhadeb government in the dock at the central level.
In the meeting on Tuesday with Gandhi, however, Left leaders are expected to use the opportunity to force the Congress to take up some of the demands made by their colleagues in Andhra Pradesh, essentially on the land distribution issue. Andhra Left leaders, who had spearheaded the agitation focussing on land for the poor, have been charging the state government with taking away land from the poor and reselling it to industrial houses.
It is expected that Gandhi could direct the chief minister to set up a land reforms commission to identify violations of the land Assignment Act 1977?a key demand of the Left parties.
Reddy had earlier this week called on Gandhi and explained the sequence of events leading to the police firing at Mudigonda. He had also briefed her on housing programmes undertaken by his government for the poor and landless.