Unfazed by snub, CPI hopes to tango with BJD at Centre

Odisha Sun Times Bureau

Bhubaneswar, Mar 13:

Notwithstanding its failure to stitch an alliance with the Biju Janata Dal (BJD), the CPI is hopeful that the Naveen Patnaik led party would be part of a new coalition of secular and democratic forces, along with Left parties, which would form the next government at the Centre.

“I am sure there will be no UPA-3. Though the BJP could be in a slightly better position than the Congress, the party and its allies will not be able to get more than 200 seats in Lok Sabha in the polls,” veteran CPI leader AB Bardhan told media persons here on  Thursday.

Though the Left parties did not enter into an electoral understanding with the BJD for the assembly election, Bardhan said he was hopeful that the ruling party in Odisha would be part of the non-Congress and non-BJP coalition at the Centre.

Appearing to be making a virtue out of a necessity, the CPI leader said the mining scam was ‘one of the reasons’ for not having an understanding with the BJD in Odisha.

He said the Left parties would play a decisive role with other secular forces to form the new government at the Centre. “Without Left parties, there cannot be an alternative coalition,” he said.

Bardhan said BJP prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi’s ‘aggressive and authoritarian ways’ are driving away many people.