Look at Goa before asking who is BJP’s ‘A or B’ team, Sitaram Yechury tells Congress

‘It was the Left Democratic Front that stopped BJP’s expansion in Kerala’

Days after attacking the Congress for spending 18 days as part of its Bharat Jodo Yatra in Kerala, the CPI(M) piped down its criticism, with CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury calling it the Congress’s prerogative to decide “how many days they spend where” though he did not shrink back from hitting out at senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh for calling the CPI(M) the “’A’ team of BJP”.  

Addressing a press conference at the party headquarters in Delhi on Friday at the end of the two-day Polit Bureau meeting of the party, Mr. Yechury said, “Every party has the right to take on their own path. Going to people is a good thing. AAP is also doing it in its own way. How many days they spend and where is their prerogative, but the people will of course draw their own conclusions.”

To another question specifically pointing out Mr. Ramesh’s tweet calling CPI(M) the “’A’ team of BJP”, he hit out by saying, “Kerala is the only State where BJP has zero legislators. And who did this? It is the Left Democratic Front that stopped the BJP’s expansion in Kerala. And as far as A or B team is concerned, they should look at Goa before levelling such allegations.” 

According to the sources, the party’s Polit Bureau also discussed the Bharat Jodo Yatra and its own sharp reaction to the Congress’s decision to spend 18 days in Kerala. The CPI(M) from its official handle had tweeted “ Bharat Jodo or Seat Jodo- 18 days in Kerala, 2 days in UP. Strange way to fight BJP-RSS.”  It was felt that the responsibility of countering the Congress should be left to the party’s Kerala unit and that the Central leadership should not engage in a war of words. 

Mr. Yechury, reiterated his stand that a national-level pre-poll alliance before the Lok Sabha election of 2024 was not possible. The electoral understanding had to be arrived at in every State addressing the unique political factors of each of them. “We need to understand that we have a parliamentary democracy not a presidential form of democracy,” he stressed, explaining that an Opposition alliance could be formulated only once the results came in. Having added that caveat, he praised both TRS chief K. Chandrasekhar Rao and NCP chief Sharad Pawar for initiating a dialogue within the Opposition parties.