Calcutta, June 30: Left Front chairman Biman Bose today asked partners to gear up for the Lok Sabha polls.

With an eye on the elections, a Left Front meeting today decided to sell pulses and edible oil through ration shops in addition to rice, wheat, sugar and kerosene.

Finance minister Asim Dasgupta had been asked to attend the meeting to fine-tune the move, aimed at reversing the setbacks in the recent panchayat polls.

“Dasgupta as well as food minister Paresh Adhikary have already held preliminary discussions on how to give some relief to common people by providing more items through the public distribution system. Both have been told to prepare for the move,’’ said Bose, also the state CPM secretary.

Transport minister Subhas Chakraborty was also there at the front meeting, for a discussion on the hike in fares.

This is the first time the front discussed a fare hike, to ensure that people were not burdened in a possible election year.

Amid the rancour over the formation of panchayat boards and allegations that the Left partners are aligning with the Opposition to queer the CPM’s pitch, Bose appealed for peace. “Make sure that we fight the Lok Sabha polls together,” he told the meeting.

Briefing the allies about the CPM politburo’s latest decisions, Bose said the possibilities of a thaw with the Congress over the nuclear deal were remote with the party throwing its weight behind the Prime Minister.

Bose and Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee today stepped up the attack on Manmohan Singh and the Congress for failing to control price rise.

Indicating the tenor of the Left’s poll campaign, Bhattacharjee said the Centre’s “performance on the economic front was unsatisfactory” and held it responsible for farmers’ suicides.

“The Prime Minister is more interested in honouring his commitment to (US President George W.) Bush rather than to the people of the country,” Bose said.

However, the campaign on inflation will be stepped up only after a Left meeting on July 4 in Delhi.