Bardhan on guestlist, SP softly nudges Cong

Tomorrow's Samajwadi Party conference in Patna, being presided over by UP Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav, will have a politically signif...

Tomorrow’s Samajwadi Party conference in Patna, being presided over by UP Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav, will have a politically significant visitor, CPI general secretary A.B.Bardhan. And with Harkishen Singh Surjeet taken ill, big brother CPI(M) may go unrepresented but the new general secretary, Prakash Karat, says they would have liked to be present too.

This expression of camaraderie towards a largely isolated SP by both Communist parties is significant now that the rift between the UPA policy-makers and the Left parties on economic issues appears almost unbridgeable.

Karat, in fact, told Express that not too much should be read into Surjeet’s absence tomorrow. ‘‘He really would have gone had his health been alright.’’ And it may be recalled that Surjeet has been almost indulgent towards Mulayam for almost a decade now.

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Though not too much should also be read into the alacrity with which both Communist parties have grabbed the SP’s invitation, it is clear that it helps to send a signal to the Congress that there is always this other option which the Left could explore.

As it is, the CPI(M) did discuss the possibility of a Third Alternative at its party congress. Even Mulayam’s politics benefits because he can now flaunt his proximity with the Left and tell his constituency that he is not as isolated as sections of the media make him out to be.

And this camaraderie comes on a day when the Left parties met this morning and decided that they would write to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and ask him to give a fresh look at the Pension Regulatory Authority Bill in Parliament. They wanted the PM to consider the changes that have been suggested by the Left leaders. The Left believes it has an edge because this bill, unlike the Patents (Amendment) Bill, is a money bill.

After the meeting, Left leaders said they had already announced in public that they were opposed to a legislation which would allow managers of the pension fund to subject employees’ savings to the vagaries of stock market.

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The Left meeting also decided that they would ask the government to reconsider the Electricity Bill. The Left parties had submitted a detailed note on the subject to the Government. Even the CMP says that the law concerned needs to be reviewed. Already, trade unions in the power sector have said they would go on a strike against the bill.