A day before the trust vote, the Left on Monday decided to leave the “number game” part to Mayawati and put its attention to providing ideological character to the emerging UNPA-Left alliance which is going to meet on July 23.

It would be the first official meeting between the Left and UNPA after the dramatic entry of the BSP into the front. The meeting is to be held at Mayawati’s residence here. New entrants, including Ajit Singh’s RLD and the JDS will also be part of the meeting.

The Left parties, it is understood, have willingly taken up the task of providing a mutually palatable ideological platform for the new coalition that includes parties with extreme views. “The new coalition would essentially have a pro-people policy line and the Left would be contributing towards it,” a Politburo member who is part of the exercise told The Indian Express.

It is understood that Left and UNPA partners have arrived at a consensus that the political line of the new UNPA-Left alliance would be “left to the centre” with an emphasis on minority-Dalit issues.

“The BSP is a party which stands for the most backward people in our society. And our party also has always been with the most oppressed. So, naturally, the political line of the new coalition would be pro-poor,” said Politburo member S R Pillai.

Left parties, despite considering Mayawati’s entry into the scene as a “political coup” of sorts, are quite perturbed about the the casteist tag associated with her. The Left hopes that if the new coalition would have a “left to the centre” ideological and political line, it would ease it out from the allegation of playing casteist politics along with the BSP.

... contd.