Yechury does not rule out support to UPA

Despite Communist Party of India-Marxist general secretary Prakash Karat [ Images ] having categorically ruled out support to a
Congress-led government at the Centre again, senior party politburo member Sitaram Yechury [ Images ] said on Monday that the party's next step would be decided only after the elections.
    
"We will decide what will happen post-election, but right now our objective till the elections are over is the third alternative. However, we do not think the need to support a Congress-led government will arise," Yechury told a press
conference here.
    
Asked about Karat's statement in Kolkata [ Images ] recently that the Left would not extend support to a Congress-led coalition
again, Yechury said, "I do not know in what context he had said this. We will meet and decide what will happen post-election."
    
Yechury said the Congress leaders were openly saying after the third phase of the elections that they would take support of the Left if the opportunity to form a government arose. "But this is an admission of their realisation that they
are not coming back to power. Our objective is to form a Third Front government and we are confident about that," he said.
    
Asked if the Left was approached to support a Congress-led coalition minus Manmohan Singh [ Images ] as the prime minister, he said they were not concerned about individuals, but issues.