CPI to contest 25-30 seats, efforts on for third front

Jalandhar, Sep 20 (UNI) Punjab Communist Party of India (CPI) secretary Jagroop Singh today said the party would contest 25 to 30 seats in the coming state assembly elections even as its efforts to form a third front along with the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPM) and other like-minded parties were in progress.

The Punjab CPI unit would hold a meeting in Chandigarh on September 30 to identify the 30 constituencies to field the party candidates, he told UNI here.

The party's further strategy for advancing a dialogue for the formation of a third front would also be chalked out in the meeting, he added.

He said the CPI and other like-minded parties had been making earnest efforts to form the third front to provide an alternative to the ruling Congress and the Akali-BJP combine to the voters of Punjab during the polls due in February 2007.

''A general sense of unanimity over the issue has already been achieved and the efforts of floating the front may take a definite shape by October,'' he said.

Initially the CPI had intended to contest around 35 seats but for the sake of a ''broad-based alliance'' and floating of the third front the party was ready to sacrifice, he said.

''If necessary for adjustment with the other parties, CPI can even agree to field its nominees in only 25 to 30 constituencies,'' Mr Singh said.

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