New Delhi, Thursday 19 March 2009: CPM general Secretary Prakash Karat, said that he would be open to talking to the Congress party to help support the formation of an alternative national government after a general election.

“We can do business with them and ask them to support an alternative secular formation, it’s possible- why not, I don’t rule it out,” Karat said.

The CPM is a major force behind a “Third Front” of smaller regional parties that aims to challenge India’s two main national alliances led by Congress and the Hindu-nationalist BJP.

The communists quit their support for the ruling Congress-led coalition last year over opposition to a civilian nuclear deal with the United States. “It’s not a question of untouchability. We’ll do business with all parties but that business will be circumscribed by the nature of the mandate,” Karat said.

Karat’s statement signals that despite a bitter war of words between the left parties and Congress over that nuclear deal, they could once again try and form a government.

The CPM was the biggest of several left parties that backed the Congress government for four years after the last 2004 general election, blocking many economic reforms.