Victory not mandate to pursue deal: Left

The parties, which made an unsuccessful bid to bring down the Government on the issue of the deal, met here to take stock of the situation and decided to go on a campaign mode anticipating early general elections despite Manmohan Singh winning the confidence vote.

“The Manmohan Singh Government has won the vote of confidence in the Lok Sabha but the entire country has witnessed how parliamentary democracy has been subverted. Reports of bribery, intimidation and horse-trading have been proved by cross-voting and abstentions engineered by the Congress and the Samajwadi Party,” the Left parties said.

While the threat of early elections has been averted with the Government winning the vote, the Left calculation is that the contradictions between the Congress and its new-found friend, the SP, would erupt in one form or the other soon, and there will be elections by November this year.

“The moral authority of the Government has been compromised. The debate in the Lok Sabha has shown up the sharp division on the nuclear deal. This is no mandate for going ahead with the deal,” they said while noting that the campaign against the Agreement will continue.

The Left has decided to launch a nation-wide campaign along with BSP, JD(S) and Rashtriya Lok Dal and UNPA units — Telugu Desam and INLD — on issues like price rise, farmers’ suicides, the nuclear deal and misuse of Government institutions like the CBI as political tools.

The four Left parties will also step up agitation against the “anti-people” policies of the Government.