The RSP and the Forward Bloc leaders who met President K R Narayanan on Friday morning to convey their refusal to support the Congress, later clarified that they would support any alternative government "to keep the BJP out of power".

For well over five days, the RSP and the Forward Bloc have had the two dominant Left parties, Communist Party of India (Marxist) and Communist Party of India (CPI), leaning on them to change their stand but to no avail.

West Bengal Chief Minister Jyoti Basu and CPI(M) general secretary Harkishan Singh Surjeet had a number of meetings with the RSP and the FB leaders to persuade them to change their minds about extending issue-based support from outside to the Congress.

Butthe RSP and the FB leaders maintained that their respective parties had lumped the Congress and the BJP as being "bourgeois" parties which pursued anti-poor and anti-working class policies.

After meeting the President, however, when it became obvious that their refusal to support Congress could tilt the balance for the BJP and that the seven Lok Sabha seat controlled by the RSP and FB could wily-nily result in a BJP initiative, the two parties indicated that they were ready for a rethink.

RSP general Secretary K Pankajakshan told reporters that if a possibility arose where the ousted BJP-led Government stays in power, "then the RSP will review its stand in the interest of Left unity". And in such an eventuality, the RSP will vote for an alternative government.

When asked what if the alternative government was lead by the Congress, Pankajakshan said, "We will review our position then."

The RSP and the FB had in their letter to the President said that they would support any "alternative government withLeft, democratic and secular forces keeping our stand of equidistance from BJP and Congress in mind".

After the removal of the BJP government, the RSP said that "as a Left party, keeping the idea of maintaining Left unity and to avoid a situation where an ousted government continues in power, we shall review our stand if the situation so warrants or demands."