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CPI-M won't support Congress to topple BJP govt

Communist Party of India-Marxist general secretary Harkishen Singh Surjeet today clarified that his party would not extend support to the Congress to topple the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government at the Centre.

''We have not said we will support the Congress to topple the government even though we will intensify our agitation to isolate the BJP-RSS combine,'' Surjeet told the media at EMS Nagar, Calcutta.

He said his party would extend conditional support if the government was toppled because of infighting among the constituents and the Congress decided to form a government since the people would not like another general election.

To a question on Congress leader Pranab Mukherjee's comment that the party did not want support from the CPI-M, the Communist leader said, ''On the contrary, a spokesperson of the Congress had welcomed his party's decision of conditional support.

''Let the Congress sort out among themselves whether they would take support or not. There are not many customers in the Congress shop,'' he said.

''We have made it clear that there will be no alliance with the Congress but only conditional support,'' he said.

Surjeet said his party had already demarcated between the BJP and the Congress. ''While the BJP's platform is Hindutva, the Congress' is secularism.''

UNI

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