He said that the negotiation of the 123 agreement itself had taken over two years and the CPM has hardly spent a few months.

“The (UPA-Left) committee has met for five times. The sixth meeting is scheduled on November 16,” he told a press conference at the CPM’s Alimuddin Street headquarters. “We are hopeful that we will be able to do something in that meeting,” he said. “We are prepared to spend as much time as necessary because we consider this a vital matter and we would like to resolve this issue.”

“Our effort is now to see that this committee comes to some conclusion.” he said. “The Left parties are all in that committee. We are working together,” he said, stressing that the goal would be to “resolve the issue”.

Karat also said the Left would like a discussion in Parliament, which has been convened from November 15. “We would like to see the views of the members. We are not insisting on voting resolution —- it can be a non-voting resolution,” Karat said.

Karat stressed that he had never talked about withdrawal of support to the UPA government.

On a possible Third Front, Karat said: “We have an understanding of what the third alternative should be, and we have been working for that, but it is not going to be some alliance of some parties for the elections. It is a much more wider thing, a much more deeper thing.”