IndiaPost.com - Snap polls will hit Left parties hard

NEW DELHI: Left parties may stand to lose heavily while Mayawati's Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) can emerge as a big gainer if snap polls are held now, according to a survey by a leading English magazine.

The UPA might secure 172 to 192 seats, showing a downslide, while NDA's kitty can go up to 178 to 198 seats and the Third Front can notch 44 to 54 seats, The Week/CVoter survey said. In the 545-member Lok Sabha, the share of the four Left parties, which is having a stand-off with the Government on the nuclear issue, may drop to 38 to 48 seats from the present all time best of 59 seats. CPI-M alone has 43 seats and CPI has ten in the present Lok Sabha.

The BSP, which swept to power in the recent UP assembly polls belying all predictions, may see its numbers more than doubling up. The BSP, which now has a strength of 18, can look for securing 44 to 55 seats, the survey claimed. A handshake by Congress President Sonia Gandhi and BSP supremo Mayawati and the support of smaller parties could diminish the clout enjoyed by the CPI-M. The independents may be able to cobble up 26 to 36 seats, according to the survey. UPA, BSP plus independents can be in a position to form the government.

The Left parties while asking the Goverment not to operationalise the Indo-US nuclear deal have made it known to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the Congress party that they were not keen to rock the UPA boat. It is also felt that the Left can at no stage give the impression of covertly aiding the BJP, especially at a time when they were drawing big support from the Muslims.

Thirty per cent of the voters polled were of the opinion that the Congress should listen to the Left parties and scrap the deal, while 47 per cent felt that Congress should not listen to the Left demands. 23 per cent voters were undecided. Softening Left Meanwhile, softening its stand further, the CPI(M) has said it saw no crisis for the UPA government over the Indo-US nuclear deal and made it clear that it was only for pressing the 'pause' button and not either the "eject or stop" button.

"I don't see a crisis. Where was it and where has it gone," CPI(M) Politburo member Sitaram Yechury told reporters replying to a volley of questions on whether the crisis for the Manmohan Singh government on the deal issue was over.

At the same time, he stuck to his party's stand that the government should not proceed further with operationalising the deal as it was not in the national interest and demanded a "structured debate" in Parliament in which the government should reply.

He suggested that there could be talks between the Left and the Congress once UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi returns from South Africa and her party deliberates on the response to the Central Committee resolution on the matter.

Yechury, who is also the CPI(M)'s Parliamentary party leader, insisted that the Left wants other important issues like price rise, legislation for workers in unorganized sector and implementation of the recommendations of the Srikrishna Commission and the Sachar Committee to be debated in Parliament along with the nuclear issue.

"We don't want the nuclear issue to hijack other important issues," he said. His comments came a day after CPI (M) General Secretary Prakash Karat's assertion that the party does not want the "current crisis" over the deal to affect the government and it was trying to allay apprehensions that it was interested in pulling down the government.