Join hands to defeat BJP: Sitaram Yechury tells secular parties

BHUBANESWAR: As a part of the process to isolate BJP before the next general elections, CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury called upon all secular parties join hands.

Yechury, who is in the State on a two-day visit, said BJD should cooperate in this effort. The BJP is required to be unseated from power, he said and added that the BJD as a regional party has a major role to play in this. “The ruling BJD in Odisha has a major role to play against the BJP Government,” he told mediapersons at the airport after arriving here.

To a question on whether his party will have an alliance with the BJD in the forthcoming elections, Yechuri said the party’s State committee will take a decision in this regard. He also made it clear that his party will not share any forum in which the Congress is involved. “But, efforts will be made to ensure that non-BJP votes are not divided in the next elections,” he said.

About formation of an anti-BJP front or third front minus the Congress, Yechury said going by the political history of the country, such an alliance is formed always after the election.

“In 1996, the United Front led by former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda and the UPA Government led by former Prime Minster Manmohan Singh in 2004 were formed after the polls,” he said.

Criticising the all-round failure of the BJP Government, Yechury said the poor has become poorer and the rich is getting richer in the country. The CPM leader later left for Berhampur. He is scheduled to attend an open session of the party’s State committee in Bhubaneswar on Saturday.