In the 21st Party Congress, you have reviewed "Our growing weakness was the electoral alliance and adjustment that we had entered into with various regional parties". "By this we compromised the identity and independent role of our Party" and therefore "could not gain the people’s confidence". In this review, I am afraid, you might have missed to refer to, as it appears, our alliance with the Congress under the pseudonym Congress for democracy in Tripura in, perhaps, 1977 and our alliance with the Congress at the centre in 2004 with varied results. How can you fit these opposite developments with the same political-tactical line? Sunil Baran Chakraborty, Bidhannagar, Kolkata The 21st Congress of the CPI(M) had reviewed the political-tactical line pursued in the last two and a half decades since the change in the international correlation of forces after the fall of the Soviet Union, the advent of liberalisation and rise of communalism. One of the conclusions in the review was that prolonged alliances with the major regional parties had hampered the projection and independent growth of the Party in the concerned states. These regional parties had undergone changes in their class outlook and policies after the neo-liberal phase of capitalism set-in. When they came to power, they were willing to implement neo-liberal policies; they also took politically opportunist positions by allying with the BJP or Congress whenever it suited their interests for joining coalition governments at the centre. Therefore, election alliances with these parties led to the blurring of the independent class positions being taken by the Party and the erosion of our mass base. It was in this background that it was decided that there should not be any attempt to form a national alliance with these parties in the name of projecting a third alternative. Further, at the state level, electoral alliances should help strengthen the Party and rally the Left and democratic forces. You have referred to the electoral understanding with the Congress for Democracy in Tripura in 1977. Earlier there was an electoral understanding with the Bangla Congress in West Bengal. In the sixties and seventies, many regional formations sprung up by splitting away from the Congress. We had entered into electoral understandings with such parties from time to time. But the situation was different then. The role and policies of the regional parties was different in the sense that they were politically against the dominant ruling class party, the Congress. As for the support extended to the Congress-led government at the centre in 2004, it was not the result of an election alliance. The CPI(M) decided to extend support to the UPA government at the centre with the main purpose of having a secular government as against the earlier BJP-led government. The political-tactical line is not a permanent one. It changes from time to time depending on the political situation and the relative strength and positions of the various political parties.