CPI, LJP join hands to contest Bihar polls

Remarking that "secularism was not enough" to form a common front in Bihar, the CPI today broke rank with the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) and its Left ally, the CPI(M), to announce formally that it would be contesting the Assembly elections in Bihar in alliance with Ramvilas Paswan's Lok Janashakti Party (LJP).

In a break from the past when the CPI had cast its lot with the UPA and Lalu Prasad's Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), this time, in justification of its decision to fracture the anti-communal front, the CPI said it agreed with Paswan's plank that Lalu's "misrule" in Bihar had to be ended.

The party said it was convinced that Paswan was against the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) as well and that was the reason why the CPI had decided to align with the LJP.

Thus the CPI committed itself to a position that fighting on a mere secularism plank was not enough, that it also believed that quality of governance was important.

The party has a sizeable but diffused vote base in Bihar, although its proportion of seats in the Assembly has been going down steadily. Also, the CPI is perceived to have largely an upper caste base and possibly for the first time in Bihar's history, this is coming together with Dalits to form a common front, a coalition of castes that could have unpredictable results.

CPI General Secretary AB Bardhan said at a press conference: "We are opposed to the misrule of the RJD. That is the single most reason why we have formed a separate secular alliance." The CPI leader said though his party did not question the secularism of the Congress and the RJD "our experience is that it is not enough to be only secular".

A two-day meeting of CPI's national executive, specifically convened to discuss the Bihar elections, finalised the party's tactics on the basis of reports from party's state unit. "There will be an alliance between our party and the LJP. Talks with the CPI(M-L) are going on. We are also talking to parties such as the Forward Bloc and the RSP and the Samajwadi Party," he said.

The CPI veteran said the alliance proposed to contest all seats in the election "on this basis. Some disagreements have to be sorted out on seat-sharing," he said adding "by 23 September, we will certainly complete all the seat-sharing."

"As far as we are concerned, we are sharing seats for all the four phases of the elections so that the picture is complete," he said.

Goodwill for the LJP grew as CPI(M-L) leader Dipankar Bhattacharya dubbed Lalu a "guided missile" in the hands of the Congress but hoped there would be "programmatic unity" between the constituents of the CPI-LJP front not merely a tactical electoral alliance.

The extreme Left wing groups in Bihar have a substantial presence in some parts of Bihar and got a few seats in the last Assembly as well.

The CPI said allegations made in a new book on KGB operations that the Soviet intelligence agency had funded it, should be rejected "with the contempt that they deserve".

"These are all old allegations, which are baseless, untrue and false. I dismiss them with the contempt that they deserve," CPI National Secretary D Raja said in response to media reports citing the allegations in "Mitrokhin Archives Volume II: the KGB and its operations" based on records smuggled out of USSR by a former senior archivist.

Denying charges that that CPI had received funding from the Soviets, he said, "We do not need to depend upon others... My party has nothing to do with this (charges)".