The acting general secretary of CPI(M), Sitaram Yechury, on Friday said that his party and left hold “patent” on “outside support” to coalition governments, as reported by IE. This statement by Yechury came after the CPI(M) central committee meeting, which was held to discuss 2019 Lok Sabha elections and the role of the party towards Congress in it. The statement is of a massive political significance as it means that a possible left support to Congress cannot be ruled out. At the book release function of former President Pranab Mukherjee’s book, The Coalition Years, Yechury had claimed that they hold an intellectual patent. “I still claim one intellectual patent, and that is the concept called outside support”. He said the paradigm of the coalition is “coming back” to Indian politics again.
CPI(M), whose main political line of approach has been to take on BJP, had denied any electoral understanding with Congress in 2015. “Our main direction of our attack should be against the BJP when it is in power, but this cannot mean having an electoral understanding with the Congress.”
Talking about the political atmosphere, Yechury said that the political situation has changed and the political line has to be nuanced, as per a report by The Indian Express. Further, a political resolution will be out after the three-days central committee of the party, which will begin today, i.e Saturday. The political resolution will provide a detailed explanation of this ongoing argument.
However, the political line of work of two members of the Left varies. While Yechury has a view that CPI(M) should seek the collaboration of non-Left secular parties to take on BJP, his predecessor, Prakash Karat, and his associates believe that cooperation of non-Congress secular parties is enough to defeat BJP.