PTI
 
Kolkata, May 2: The Left parties providing crucial support could pull down the Congress-led UPA government at the Centre in a day, but it was important to keep it in power for five years as there was no other alternative, veteran CPI(M) leader Jyoti Basu said on Monday.

"We can pull down the [UPA] government in one day. But if we pull it down, there is no guarantee that we will be able to provide an alternative at the Centre. We don't have that strength," Basu told a May Day rally in Kolkata.

He said that the CPI(M) had not expanded beyond West Bengal, Kerala and Tripura. "We have to keep this government for five years. By then we will know our strength."

"We are not really expanding beyond the three states. Not only the party, but our mass organisations and trade unions are also not expanding," he admitted.

Basu also accused the Centre of not implementing the Common Minimum Programme, but did not identify the areas of violations.

"The government is not implementing the programmes in the CMP which they had agreed to implement," the CPI(M) leader said.