Panaji, April 21 (IANS) The Third Front will never assist the Congress in forming a government, senior Communist Party of India (CPI) general secretary A.B. Bardhan said here Tuesday.
However, “it was their (the Congress’) business” if the Third Front were to form a government and the Congress were to support it from outside, Bardhan told reporters at the party’s state headquarters.

“Our helping the Congress to help them in forming a government is ruled out. We parted ways with the Congress on matters of principle and ideology.”

The senior CPI leader said the Third Front acknowledged that Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar was good prime ministerial material, but hastened to add that the coalition had not endorsed his name for the office.

“We are not projecting him. We will decide who will become prime minister after the election results are out and the picture is clearer,” he said.

Bardhan said the Third Front’s tally in these elections would be nearly the same as their score in Lok Sabha in 2004.

“We should get around 61 seats this time too. A few more certainly, but no less,” he said, adding that political parties affiliated to the Third Front were contesting in nearly 221 seats.

Pitching to make agriculture the backbone of the India’s economy, Bardhan called for heavy investment by the state in the public health and education sectors. “This is the way the economy should be revived, not by merely bailing out the corporate sector.”

Bardhan also criticised the Congress leaders for having links with those accused for mega corporate corruption. “The Congress chief minister (in Andhra Pradesh) Rajasekhara Reddy had links with the Satyam accused,” he alleged.