India’s Congress party is confident it can retain power without needing to mend ties with the Communists, who want to limit foreign investment and almost brought down the government last year over a nuclear energy deal with the U.S.
“We can form the government without the Left,” Trade Minister Kamal Nath said in an interview yesterday in New Delhi. “We’re not looking at the Communists at the moment.”
Congress may need to woo former allies or find new partners to form a majority in parliament after elections that concluded May 13, exit polls showed. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the communists, or Left-wing parties, parted ways in July after four years of wrangling on issues ranging from allowing retailers including Wal-Mart Stores Inc. into the country to increased foreign ownership of insurers.
“I don’t think Congress will make the mistake of wanting to form a government with the Left again unless all other strategies have been exhausted,” said Prem Shankar Jha, an independent political analyst and former aide to former prime minister Vishwanath Pratap Singh.
The benchmark Sensitive Index has fallen 2.4 percent on the Bombay Stock Exchange since exit polls showed prospects of a hung parliament. Election results will be announced tomorrow.
India’s four Communist parties currently hold 61 of 543 lower-house seats, making them the third-largest bloc in parliament after groups led by Congress and the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party. Exit polls indicated the Communists may lose almost half of those seats and Congress has already forged an alliance with the Trinamool Congress Party in the Communist stronghold of West Bengal.
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