Despite the combined persuasive skills of CPI(M) general secretary Harkishen Singh Surjeet and West Bengal Chief Minister Jyoti Basu being targeted at the two, the RSP and Forward Block have refused to budge.

At the end of a two-hour long meeting of the four Left parties, top leaders of the CPI(M), CPI, RSP and Forward Block emerged no closer to papering over their differences. All the four parties will meet again on Monday to try and hammer out a joint common position.

``For 50 years we have fought the Congress on several issues. We have fundamental differences with the Congress on its economic policy which are anti-people in nature. How can we do an about turn and support them now?'' RSP general secretary Abani Roy said.

The RSP and Forward Block want thenon-Congress and non-BJP parties to put their heads together and explore all possibilities of forming a third alternative government, which could be supported by the Congress from the outside. At today's meeting, the lead was taken by Basu. It was not as if the CPI(M) did not have problems with the economic policies of the Congress, Basu explained.

But at this juncture, the Congress had proved to be the lesser evil when compared with the BJP which is openly communal. If the secular foundations of the country are to be salvaged, then the hands of the Congress have to be strengthened. And it is for this reason alone that the CPI(M) was ready to render issue-based support to the Congress, Basu said.

Basu's rhetoric did not cut much ice with the two junior partners who think a Congress-led government would be just as unstable, leaving the government vulnerable to the pulls and pressures of partners, allies and supporters.