CPI welcomes BJD decision to have no truck with BJP, Cong

Bhubaneswar: CPI today welcomed Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik`s decision that the ruling BJD would not have any poll alliance with Congress and BJP in the 2014 elections. While the general elections and assembly polls are two years away, the state unit of CPI at a meeting discussed the present political situation in the state, particularly after an aborted coup bid against the state government.

"Both Congress and BJP undertake similar economic and foreign policies. Therefore, a call has been given for a left democratic alternative," CPI state secretary Dibakar Nayak said in a statement. Terming Patnaik`s announcement as "a positive political attitude", CPI dubbed BJP as a rightist communal party. "Patnaik has made his stand clear by announcing that he will not forge alliance with BJP with which BJD had snapped ties before the 2009 polls," Nayak said.

However, both the Congress and BJP ridiculed Naveen Patnaik for talking about electoral alliances at a time when polls are far away. Senior BJP leader B B Harichandan said there was no need for Patnaik to make a such statement at this juncture and it showed the chief minister was mentally disturbed due to the recent coup attempt against his government by rebels. BJP has also made it clear in unequivocal terms that the party would not have an alliance with BJD at any cost, he said.

Hitting out at Naveen for his utterances on poll alliances, Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee President Niranjan Patnaik said it was ridiculous on the part of the Chief Minister to talk about a tie-up with Congress as the national party neither had any alliance with BJD in the past nor it has any such plan for future.