NEW DELHI, 1 August 2004 — Top Marxist leaders, including former West Bengal Chief Minister Jyoti Basu, met Congress party President Sonia Gandhi yesterday to discuss ways to resolve differences with the central government on economic issues.

Basu, along with his Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPM) colleague Sitaram Yechuri, spoke to Sonia at her residence for half an hour.

The Left supports the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government from outside but has lately voiced protests against some of its economic policies.

Though the meeting was described as a “courtesy call,” it was primarily held to discuss the formation of coordination committee for smooth functioning of the UPA government.

“It was just a courtesy call. But we have given certain proposals,” Yechuri said after the meeting with Sonia.

Left leaders have said a coordination committee for ensuring the smooth running of the UPA would be finalized soon.

“Hopefully the finalization of the coordination committee would be done by evening,” Yechuri said.

The Left has proposed the names of its representatives for the coordination committee.

They include CPM General Secretary Harkishen Singh Surjeet, Yechuri, Debabrata Biswas of the Forward Bloc, Abani Roy of the Revolutionary Socialist Party, and A.B. Bardhan and D. Raja of the Communist Party of India.

Left parties have been protesting a budgetary proposal to raise the foreign direct investment (FDI) cap in key sectors like civil aviation, insurance and telecom.

Though Yechuri denied any discussion on issues like FDI with Sonia, sources said the Left leaders asked her to take the initiative to break the deadlock as soon as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh returned from Bangkok.

However, the Left parties appear to have softened their stance. “We want this government to complete five years,” said Yechuri.

The Communists appears divided on raising the cap in foreign direct investment (FDI), a major bone of contention between key allies in the coalition government.

While a section of CPM leaders feel the Left should adopt a soft stand on the Congress that leads the coalition, hard-liners insist they should continue their protest against the ruling coalition’s proposal to raise the FDI cap in key sectors.

Sources said Surjeet and Basu do not want to take any steps “which might directly or indirectly help the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)”, especially when political parties are gearing up for assembly polls in some states.

Basu, emerging from the ongoing politburo meeting here Friday, told reporters that Left parties would meet Manmohan immediately after his return from Bangkok to resolve differences within his coalition on FDI.

“May be on Monday, we will meet the prime minister when he comes back from Thailand and it is a suggestion by the (CPM) politburo,” Basu said.

—additional input from IANS.