CPM mulls alliance with secular parties ahead of Lok Sabha elections

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Aiming to win more seats in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, CPM will seek electoral alliances with democratic and secular parties in states where the Left Front have considerable clout.

The CPM's three-day central committee meeting in Thiruvananthapuram, which is about to end on Tuesday, will formulate strategies in this regard. A discussion was held in the last two days regarding the policy approaches to be adopted by the party and the left-wing allies.

In the meeting it was decided to prevent the splitting of secular votes, to stymie the rise of a third wave of the BJP front. Representatives from states like Maharashtra and Bihar raised the demand to seek more alliance possibilities in the discussion. In states other than Bengal, Tripura and Kerala, the proposal to have a seat agreement with the Congress and regional parties gained precedence in the discussion.

The Left Front, which won 60 seats in the 2004 Lok Sabha elections and became a decisive influence in the first Manmohan Singh government has now been restricted to just 5 members of parliament. CPM has one seat from Kerala and CPM and CPI each have two seats from Tamil Nadu.

It is expected that both parties will get two seats each from the DMK front in Tamil Nadu this time as well. In Bihar, the Left weighs some significance and has 16 members in the current assembly, including the CPI-ML. If contested alone in the upcoming elections, there lies an apprehension about more votes falling into BJP's basket which will ensure saffron domination. It was at this juncture that the party pondered over coalition as the better option of all.

During the last Lok Sabha election, CPM bore the brunt of being on the wrong side of the Sabarimala agitation and won just one seat in elections. This time, the central committee will formulate necessary strategies including campaigning and candidate selection to win maximum seats.