No alliance or united front with Congress, says Prakash Karat

The CPI(M) today categorically ruled out forging an alliance or a united front with the Congress in future.

"There is no debate on that. We will have no alliance or united front with the Congress," Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary Prakash Karat said at a press conference at the end of a four-day Extended Central Committee meeting of the party here.

The Left leader said they supported the UPA government in 2004 only with the single point agenda of keeping the BJP out of power.

Referring to the withdrawal of support to the UPA government in 2008 on the issue of Indo-US nuclear deal, the CPI(M) general secretary observed that it was "correct and necessary."

"This stand by the CPI(M) politburo and the Central Committee has been endorsed by the ECC. But the ECC felt that may be we should have withdrawn the support earlier than letting India go to the International Atomic Energy Agency," Karat noted.

Asked if the "timing" of the withdrawal of support was wrong, he said, "The question is not about the timing. We should have done it at a time when we could have stopped the nuclear deal.

"But, at that point, we wanted time for withdrawal (of support) and prepare for the Lok Sabha elections," he said.