The Communist Party of India (CPI), which was keen to enter into seat sharing arrangement with ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) in Odisha, has finally decided to forge alliance with only other Left parties in the state following lukewarm response from BJD for poll tie-up.
“There is no alliance with non-Left parties. We are fighting elections with other Left parties,” said Ardhendu Bhushan Bardhan, senior leader of the party after discussion with local leaders here.
After arriving in Bhubaneswar yesterday, Bardhan had said, he would like to meet BJD supremo and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and was hopeful that the party may repeat the 2009 arrangement, when BJD had a seat adjustment with Left parties. However, sources said, many state unit leaders of the party opposed the proposal of Bardhan during intra-party meeting today.
In 2009 elections, the BJD had formed pre-poll alliance with Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), CPI and Communist Party of India Marxists (CPM), but this time has decided to severe the ties and go only with Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) for few seats in two tribal dominated districts of Mayurbhanj and Jharkhand.
Last time, CPI had contested one Lok Sabha and five assembly seats, out of which it had won one Parliament seat and one assembly seat.
The party is still discussing about the number of seats it will contest in the upcoming polls apart from seat sharing arrangement with CPM.
“We have received applications for five Lok Sabha seats and 35 assembly seats. The state council meeting will take a final decision in this regard soon,” party’s state secretary, Dibakar Nayak said.
The CPM has already announced its list of candidates for two Lok Sabha seats and 12 assembly seats, and said, it would not have any alliance with BJD. However, the party was open to seat sharing with CPI, it had said.
The Left parties had been trying for last two months to bring Naveen Patnaik into the fold of Third Front, which has recently seen exit of its key allies such as AIADMK. Though Patnaik had first indicated his desire to join the front, later has wavered from the stand by staying away from the meeting of the front leaders.
