New Delhi:
Elections should be fought on issues instead of personalities, CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury said today, describing the "NaMo versus RaGa" contest - referring to
Narendra Modi and Rahul Gandhi - as "cacophony".
"Instead of the issues, you find the NaMo RaGa. Normally the ragas are musical, this is cacophony," Mr Yechury sarcastically remarked.
"Our slogan in the next election will be 'neta nahi, niti nayi (not a new leader, but a new policy)," he told journalists at the Indian Women's Press Corps in the national capital.
Responding to a question, Mr Yechury said that his party was not happy the way the Samajwadi Party government in Uttar Pradesh had handled the recent riots in the state and "it had been conveyed to them at a convention of secular parties".
The Left leader said the convention was organised to mobilise secular forces at a time when an attempt was being made to widen communal divide.
"You had the Muzaffarnagar riots, you had Modi announced by BJP as their prime ministerial candidate. You know the baggage associated with Modi in Gujarat... So this entire atmosphere was being built towards a sharpening of communal polarisation," he said.
Mr Yechury also said that by raising the debate on the role of Sardar Patel, the BJP as well as its parent body, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh or RSS were trying to "steal" a link to the freedom struggle.