Unlike in the 2005 Bihar Assembly polls, the state’s Left parties would contest the polls in October-November as an alliance without tying up with any other party, said CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat on Thursday.
After a meeting of the CPM’s Bihar state committee, Mr Karat said the party would contest 30 seats in alliance with the two other leading Left parties — the CPI and the CPI(M-L) — in the Assembly polls and that there would be no alliance with the RJD-LJP combine. He said the CPM would announce its candidates and their constituencies after finalising the ongoing talks over this with the other two Left parties.
In 2005, the Left parties were divided between the RJD and the LJP, which had fought separately. While the CPM had stayed with the RJD, the CPI had fought against it as part of a front comprising LJP and other smaller Left parties.
“The situation at that time was different,” said Mr Karat in his reply to reporters’ questions about possibilities of a tie-up with the RJD-LJP.
“The Left parties are now working on consolidating their strength and representation in the Bihar Assembly,” said Mr Karat, adding that the Left parties are also trying to expand their base in the country’s Hindi heartland.
The three Left parties are likely to contest about 200 of Bihar’s total 243 Assembly constituencies in an alliance. The CPI recently said it had identified 50 seats in Bihar where its candidates could win. The CPI currently has three MLAs in Bihar while the CPM has one and the CPI(ML) has five.
Mr Karat said the united Left would contest the Bihar Assembly polls on burning current issues such as price rise, unemployment, backwardness and poverty.