CPM will decide on alliance with Congress at next year's party meet, says Sitaram Yechury

New Delhi: The CPM on Monday said it will decide the issue of aligning with the Congress at its 22nd party Congress to be held from 18 to 22 April, 2018 in Hyderabad. “Based on the Polit Bureau outline and the discussions in the Central Committee, the Polit Bureau has been given the mandate to prepare a draft political resolution and present it before the next meeting,” CPM General Secretary Sitaram Yechury told reporters in New Delhi. “All options are open,” he added, when asked if the issue of forging an alliance with the Congress was discussed at the Central Committee meeting. [caption id=“attachment_4000241” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury. PTI[/caption] Yechury said that rallying secular and like-minded parties against communal forces represented by the BJP-RSS was “different from forging elections alliances”. According to sources, a faction in the party has been advocating an alliance with the Congress while another faction is against the idea, primarily due to Congress’ “neo-liberal economic policies” among other things. Yechury said that till the party Congress decides otherwise, the last resolution of opposing the Indian National Congress will continue. The party Congress held in April 2015 at Vishakhapatnam had adopted a resolution of having “no understanding or electoral alliance with the Congress”. However, in the changing political scenario when the BJP is on the offensive, voices in the Left party want a review.