CPI, CPM, SP forge poll alliance

GUWAHATI, April 17: State committees of the CPI, CPM and the Samajwadi Party (SP) today came to an understanding to put up a joint fight against both the Congress and the AGP-BJP combine in the ensuing election to the State Assembly. The three parties which are partners in the national-level People's Front, came to this conclusion of a meeting held at the Rajgarh State headquarters of the CPI here. They also arrived at a decision to 'co-ordinate' with other left, democratic and secular parties of the State like the RSP, Liberation group of the CPI (ML), the PDF and the ASDC (Progressive - led by Jayanta Rongpi), said acting secretary of the CPI State council Bhogeswar Dutta here this afternoon. According to Dutta, the three parties also came to a mutual agreement that they will field common candidates in around 80 Assembly seats of the State, while agreeing on the point of continuing the negotiations on the rest of the seats (46 seats) till the date of withdrawal of the nomination papers (i.e. April 26). The final common list of the three parties will be announced at a joint press conference on April 27, Dutta said. The meeting was attended by Dutta and Dambaru Bora of the CPI, Hemen Das of the CPM and Abdul Muhib Mazumdar and Syed Gulam Akbar of the SP. Meanwhile, the CPI is holding negotiations with the CPI-ML (Liberation), PDF, RSP and the ASDC (Progressive), while the SP is holding negotiations with the UMF and the Assam Labour Party (led by Biren Mirdha). Syed Gulam Akbar, treasurer-cum-spokesman of the State Samajwadi Party said here this afternoon that the number of seats to be contested by these three parties and their allies may go up in case the parties come to understandings with the CPI-ML (Liberation), PDF and some other parties. The SP is holding negotiations with the Assam Labour Party and the UMF. Negotiation with the UMF is expected to be completed by tomorrow and so far progress of negotiation with the UMF is very smooth, Akbar said. In the case of negotiation with the Assam Labour Party, some issues are there to be settled on matters related to the Moriani and Nazira Constituencies, as the SP has also claims over the two constituencies. However, on matters related to the Labour Party's claims over Dhekiajuli, Titabor, Paneri, Majbat, Duliajan, Gohpur and Bokakhat, there is no hitch between the two parties, Akbar said. He also expressed the hope that the issue of reservation within a section of the State CPM leadership over the issue of inclusion of the UMF in the new alliance will be resolved with the application of the theory of the 'lesser evil' as the call of the hour is to resist a division within the democratic and secular votes. On the issue of the size of the share of seats, he said that so far an understanding has been arrived at that the SP and the UMF will field their candidates in around 44 constituencies, and around 15 of these constituencies will be left out for the UMF. On the issue of inclusion of the UMF in the alliance, CPI's Bhogeswar Dutta said that the "UMF is a composite political formation representing the interest of certain sections of the minorities of the State and hence we have a flexible attitude towards co-ordinating with it so far as elections are concerned." When contacted CPM sources here said that the CPI, CPM and the SP have been holding negotiations on 'seat sharing' only and negotiations are yet to take a final shape.