File Photo: CPI(M) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury
Ruling out the possibility of an alliance with the Janata Parivar, the Left parties on Sunday announced their decision of contesting the crucial Bihar Assembly election as a "united" bloc.
Speaking to mediapersons after a meeting today, leaders said the Left Front decided to contest the polls, likely to be held in September-October this year, as an "independent bloc" and would not be entering into an alliance with the Janata Parivar which is not "leaving" the Congress.
"The Left parties have decided they will contest the election as an united independent bloc in Bihar. We have taken the decision at the level of central leadership," Communist Party of India (Marxist) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury said.
His CPI counterpart, S Sudhakar Reddy said that there was also no offer from the Janata Parivar, "except for some fillers in media".
"There was no offer from the Janata Parivar, except through some fillers in media. No discussion was held at the central-level.
"For some time we thought the entire Left and they (Janata Parivar) can have discussion (over alliance). And we understand, they are not leaving the Congress. If the Congress is there, we cannot even discuss. So there is no point in discussing with them," Mr Reddy said.
He added that CPI leaders had "heard" that the Parivar, a union of six offshoots of erstwhile Janata Dal, wanted to discuss tie-up with only his party amongst the Left.
"As we heard, they want to discuss the alliance only with the CPI. We don't want to divide the Left. Whatever is the stand, we would like to be together," he said.
The CPI had contested the 2014 Lok Sabha polls in Bihar in alliance with JD(U).
When asked about discussion on seat-sharing for the polls, Mr Yechury said that the actual mechanics and details will be worked out by their (respective) state units in Bihar.
Besides the CPI(M) and the CPI, leaders of CPI(ML)-Liberation, All India Forward Bloc, Socialist Unity Centre of India or SUCI(C) and Revolutionary Socialist Party or RSP were present for the meeting.