Mulayam, Left warm up to each other
After an almost two-and-a-half year gap, Samajwadi Party president Mulayam Singh Yadav and the Left parties are inching closer to each other again.
The Samajwadi president has been renewing his relationship with the Left — a relationship that had been in tatters after the Samajwadi Party supported the vote on nuclear deal in Lok Sabha in July 2008 and the Left had bitterly opposed it.
According to sources, a series of informal meetings between Mr Yadav and Left leaders during the on-going Parliament session have brought about a definite thaw.
“Leaders of Samajwadi Party and Left bloc have been talking to each other on political issue and the bonhomie in the relationship is gradually returning. The SP is our naturally ally but certain events (nuclear deal) and people (Amar Singh) caused misunderstanding,” said a senior Left leader.
A recent example of the renewed relationship is that during the Samajwadi agitation against the Mayawati government in Uttar Pradesh, the CPI strongly criticised the barbaric police action on SP protesters and frontal organisations of CPM even took to the streets to protest against crime against women.
“Yes, we would like to bring back our relationship with the Left on the earlier footing because we share a similar view on secularism and nationalism. The Left has virtually no political presence in UP but we can still be friends at the national level,” said a senior SP leader.
“The Left is preparing for the West Bengal and Kerala Assembly elections and our priority is to get rid of the Mayawati government in UP. Our political priorities may differ but our ideologies remain the same,” said the SP leader.
A state level CPI leader also agreed that relations between Left and SP were improving. “We share excellent relations personally with SP leaders but we have different political issues to deal with at the moment,” he said and added that personal relations could take a leap forward and lead to political bonding once again.
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