Left woos Janata Dal-United away from NDA

After weaning away Biju Janata Dal from the Bharatiya Janata Party-led coalition, the Left parties are now eyeing another National Democratic Alliance ally with senior Communist Party of India-Marxist leader Sitaram Yechury on Sunday holding discussions with Janata Dal-United leader and NDA convenor Sharad Yadav.

Yechury drove to Yadav's residence here and both the leaders were closeted for about an hour discussing the current political scenario, sources said. Leaders in both the parties are tight lipped about the discussions Yechury and Yadav had during their meeting. The discussion comes hours before a series of meetings CPI-M is having with other Left parties and constituents of the Third Front.

The Third Front had got a shot in the arm last week when Naveen Patnaik-led BJD walked out of NDA and entered into a seat sharing arrangement with the Left parties in Orissa. Meanwhile, top leaders of the four Left parties met here this evening to finalise a joint appeal to electorate besides fine-tuning its election strategy.

The meeting was attended by CPI-M leaders Prakash Karat and Yechury, CPI's A B Bardhan and D Raja, Revolutionary Socialist Party's T J Chandrachoodan and Abani Roy and Forward Bloc's Debabrata Biswas.