CPI-M general secretary Sitaram Yechury said on Monday that the “Opposition Mahagathbandhan (mega-alliance) is not possible at the national level”, but for defeating the BJP, his party would support strong secular parties in different regions.

Talking to the media after his party’s three-day Central Committee meet, Yechury said in Uttar Pradesh, SP and Bahujan Samaj Party(BSP) were strong, and so, the CPIM would support them against the BJP. In Bihar, the Rashtriya Janata Dal(RJD) and its associates would get his party’s support.

The party’s main target is to defeat BJP in the next Lok Sabha elections, and it would take all steps to maximise anti- BJP votes to achieve the goal, Yechury said.

The CPI-M Central Committee decided that in the coming Assembly elections in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, the party would contest “some seats” to strengthen its Assembly representation, and campaign for the defeat of the BJP in the rest of the seats.

The CPI-M’s support in these states would obviously go to the Congress Party, which is strong there, Yechury said.

In West Bengal, he said, the CPI-M’s slogan remained “defeat BJP, save India,” and “defeat Trinamul Congress, save Bengal.” How could there be any understanding with the Trinamul Congress whose president said she would “contest all 42 Lok Sabha seats in the State and win them”, he asked.

In Telangana, the CPI-M would work for the defeat of the Telangana Rashtra Samiti and the BJP for which the Bahujan Left Front, which includes the CPI-M, would contest in many constituencies. The party has already announced 12 candidates for the state, and would add more shortly.

The CPI-M General Secretary said his party would stick to the “understanding” arrived at its 22nd party congress, and the three-point task outlined by it – defeat BJP alliance; increase strength of CPI (M) and Left in the Lok Sabha; and to ensure “that an alternative secular government is formed at the Centre.”

Yechury said the Central Committee viewed the 2019 polls in the context of the situation prevailing in the country after four years of Modi rule. There was pricerise, growing unemployment, and deepening agrarian distress.

“The sharpening of communal polarisation is spreading the atmosphere of hatred, violence and terror in which many innocent lives have been lost, particularly Dalits and Muslims,” he alleged.