Ending speculation about the TDP's return to the Left-dominated third front, the Andhra Pradesh state secretariat of the CPI(M) this weekend decided ``not to have anything to do with the party'', which indicates that the rupture of ties is now final.

``We made it very clear that there could be no truck with the TDP after it broke ranks with the United Front to unilaterally support the BJP at the Centre,'' said Politburo member Sitaram Yechury. The state secretariat which met in Hyderabad on December 25-26, charged the TDP with pursuing a communal agenda and made it clear that even if the Central leadership were to soften its stance towards the TDP, there could be no going back at the regional level.

The CPM holds the TDP responsible for the BJP's continuance in office since its support is holding up the Vajpayeegovernment. In the last eight months, the rift between the CPM and the TDP has widened. Though the TDP says it has only offered ``conditional'' support to the Vajpayee government, the party has not openly opposed any of the government's policies.

``Even Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress has been critical of the BJP and exerted its influence on the Centre to make it take up people's issues,'' said a CPM leader. As for the TDP, he said, the government's mishandling of the attacks on the minorities also went uncriticised. The CPM's decision is likely to have the effect of making the TDP further beholden to the BJP, especially as Assembly elections in the state are due in 1999.

``The prospect of elections has made sections of the TDP apprehensive about going it alone. The TDP finds that it has lost the support of the minorities. It has broken from the Left and democratic forces. It stands isolated. Which is why some elements in the TDP are questioning the wisdom of continued support to the BJP,'' Yechurysaid.

For the CPM's central leadership, which has kept its doors open for the TDP, the state unit's decision has come as no surprise. There has been growing opposition to the policies of TDP chief and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu which the CPI(M) has dubbed anti-worker and anti-farmer. But the TDP's silence in the face of the BJP's `communal' agenda was reportedly the last straw. The attacks on minorities, the vandalisation of M F Hussain's house, the controversy over the film Fire drew no comment from the TDP, the CPM points out. If the TDP's support is conditional, then it should have withdrawn its support to the BJP, the CPM maintains.