Left strikes alliance with BJD, pushes for Third Front

The CPI-M is upbeat in its quest to form a Third Front and struck a pre-poll alliance with the BJD in Orissa within a day after the ruling state party snapped ties with longtime ally BJP.

JD(S) leader and former premier H D Deve Gowda also wooed the BJD supremo and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik to join the planned Third Front to provide a secular,non-Congress and non-BJP national alternative. Assembly elections are also being held in Orissa along with the Lok Sabha polls.

CPI-M's politburo member Sitaram Yechury told reporters in Bhubaneswar after meeting Patnaik that his party would have a pre-poll alliance with the BJD and welcomed the end of ties between the BJD and BJP.

Patnaik responded to Yechury's proposal saying, "The BJD will have seat-sharing adjustment with the Left parties."

Asked about BJD joining the Third Front, Yechuri said the discussion in this regard had already started with BJD disassociating itself from BJP.

Both Patnaik and Yechuri indicated that the issue of BJD joining a third front would be formalised after the elections.

In New Delhi, CPI(M) chief Prakash Karat welcomed the BJP-BJD split and said it was confident that more and more "non-Congress, non-BJP parties would join the Left" to forge a third alternative for the upcoming polls.

Gowda wrote a letter to Patnaik saying, "It is high time all like-minded secular forces sunk their differences and work together for the toiling underprivileged, exploited and impoverished masses of India."