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Shahid K Abbas in New Delhi
Veteran Communist Party of India - Marxist leader and former West Bengal chief minister Jyoti Basu has formally been given the task -- by the party's Central Committee -- of uniting opposition parties to put up a common fight against the Bharatiya Janata Party in the Gujarat assembly election.
The party's Central Committee, concluding its three-day meet in New Delhi on Wednesday, said the 'need of the hour was to defeat the BJP'.
CPI-M parliamentary party leader Somnath Chatterjee said, "Vote [in the Gujarat election] should not be divided or the BJP would be emboldened to spread its communally divisive politics to the rest of the country for mere electoral benefits."
CPI-M general secretary Harkishan Singh Surjeet responding to questions on to how the Samajwadi Party and Nationalist Congress Party would be accommodated, said, "We will make them agree to join and besides they would also reconcile to the fact that the mood of the people was for opposition unity."
CPI-M sources told rediff.com that a consensus had emerged on putting up a common front in Gujarat at a dinner meeting hosted by Basu last week.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi, former prime ministers V P Singh, H D Deva Gowda and I K Gujral and Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Laloo Prasad Yadav had attended the dinner meeting, while Chandra Shekhar, Mulayam Singh Yadav and Sharad Pawar were conspicuous by their absence.
The leaders felt that if the BJP could be defeated in the next round of assembly polls in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Delhi, it would set the 'trend for a change at the Centre', the sources said.
The dinner meeting also took up the issue of the Gujarat government's campaign against the Election Commission and the National Human Rights Commission, and Modi's determination to go ahead with the Gaurav Yatra.
Explaining the reasons for the absence of Yadav, Pawar at the dinner meeting, Chatterjee said, "Well, Yadav did not turn up as somebody in his party had met with an accident, while Pawar had met Basu in Kolkata recently in my presence and assured he was with him."
When asked whether the NCP was demanding a share in the seats in Gujarat, Chatterjee, said, "All these issues can be sorted out amicably."
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