The Communist Party of India (Marxist) said on Saturday that it would wait for the response of the United Progressive Alliance government to the note submitted by the Left before deciding its course of action. The note points out areas of differences between the UPA and the Left.

"We have submitted a note to the UPA government. We will discuss with them the issues raised in it after a month and then decide," Prakash Karat, CPI(M) general secretary, told reporters when asked about his party's support to the UPA government.

Karat, who had a 45-minute meeting with Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mulayam Singh Yadav earlier, said that his party had given support to the UPA to keep the Bharatiya Janata Party at bay at the Centre.

It did not mean that our support should be taken for granted, he said.

• 'We cannot back the government blindly'

Karat said there was no proposal to reduce sales tax on petrol and diesel in CPI(M)-ruled states on the lines of the Congress-ruled states, saying a major chunk of the oil revenue went to the Centre in the form of excise and customs duty.

"Let the Centre first reduce the petrol and diesel prices and then we can ask our state governments to reduce sales tax," he said. "We are not ready to reduce the sales tax on petrol and diesel." 

The CPI(M) leader said that the Left had differences on several others issues, which included the decision to import 35 lakh tonnes of wheat at higher prices since it would adversally affect the farmers.

Karat said the CPI(M) was also trying for creating a third alternative sans Congress and BJP. In reply to a question he said that his party had been working with the Samajwadi Party on a number of issues, including inflation. "We had jointly protested the hike in petrol and diesel prices and the response in UP was very good," he said.

Yadav, who was also present, charged the UPA government with resorting to every tactic to topple his government in the state. He said that the SP had been working with the Left on issues of common interest. "Nothing can be predicted in politics," Yadav said when asked about his party's future relations with the CPI(M).