If you’re able to form a Third Front-led government, will the CPI(M) be part of it?
The CPI(M)’s central committee will take a decision after the elections, taking into consideration all circumstances.
If so, will you consider a Left name for the PM’s post?
That doesn’t follow from that. Our emphasis will be to put a common minimum programme in place. Our role will be to facilitate the formation of a government and put in place people who can implement those policies.
Apart from your existing allies, which other parties are you in touch with?
About 10-11 parties have a pre-poll understanding. They came together on the basis of a desire to form a non-Congress, non-BJP government. After the elections, I’m sure other non-Congress secular parties would consider joining the formation.
Even if such a combination touches 150-odd, you’d still need Congress support. How do you propose to do that?
Our pre-election combination will emerge as the single-lar-gest one. After the elections, the BSP will be with us as well. It’s for the Congress then to decide whether it wishes to facilitate the formation of a secular government at the Centre.
You’ve said you won’t support a Congress-led government, but if that leads to a BJP-led government, will you reconsider your decision?
We can’t support the Congress’s policies. It’s then better for the Congress to decide what it wants to do. We are prepared to sit in the Opposition.
People believe that even if you support the Congress, you won’t back Dr Manmohan Singh as PM...
Individuals are irrelevant. It is parties and policies that matter. We don’t support or oppose individuals.
For the CPI(M), which is the bigger enemy: communalism or a strategic alliance with the US?
Both are to be fought, both are dangerous. The BJP is communal, it’s also pro-imperialist: you can’t separate the two issues.
Only through a Left-Congress understanding can the Congress-Trinamool alliance be weakened. You have an assembly election due in West Bengal in two years...
We fought the Congress and formed the Left Front. We can do it again.
