Can't rule out Left leader as PM, says CPI

Key Left Front constituent, Communist Party of India, does not rule out the possibility of a Communist heading a third front government, if voted to power.

The party also says such a non-Congress, non-BJP government would put "on hold" the Indo-US nuclear deal, an issue on which it withdrew support to the UPA government along with other Left parties last year.

"No, no, let us not rule out anything, absolutely. But right now we are not looking at that way. Time may come, when we look at that point. We don't want to add ourselves to the list at this point of time," CPI General Secretary A B Bardhan said when asked whether a Leftist would head the government after the Lok Sabha poll.

The 83-year-old Communist veteran said right now the Left was not putting forth any candidate for the Prime Ministership as its main priority is to install a non-Congress and non-BJP government at the Centre.

"I don't think that is what Left is looking at today. Today, that is not the preoccupation. The preoccupation is to see that a non-BJP and a non-Congress government can come into existence through maximum consensus," he told PTI in an interview.

Bardhan said there were many capable and experienced leaders in the Third Front to head any future government.

"We have a number of persons who are very experienced in administration and have been chief ministers not once but on a number of occasions. After the election, we can sit together and arrive at a consensus on the Prime Minister. This is what has been said not only by us but by Jayalalithaa and Mayawati too," he said.

Asked whether the Left parties would rework the Indo-US nuclear deal if a Third Front government comes into power, Bardhan said it was absolutely necessary.

"It is very essential to review the nuclear deal, to rework it. And if worst comes to the worst, putting it on hold," he said about the issue on which the Left Front parted ways with the UPA government.

The CPI leader also demanded that all future international treaties involving India should be debated and ratified by the Parliament before it is signed.

"I do not know if there is any scope for cancelling it (the nuke deal) because it is an international agreement that has been signed whether we like it or not. That is one reason, why we have been insisting that in future, treaties and international agreements be fully debated and ratified by the Parliament," he said.