Four Left parties to jointly contest 29 seats in Punjab

Jalandhar, Jan 10 (UNI) Four Left parties have reached an understanding for building a ''pro people alternative'' to the ruling Congress and SAD-BJP combine in the February 13 Punjab assembly elections.

They have decided to contest 29 of the total 117 assembly seats.

An announcement to this effect was made at a press conference addressed jointly by Communist Party Marxist, Punjab (Pasla) secretary Mangat Ram Pasla, CPI Liberation (CPML) state president Rajwinder Singh Rana, All India Forward Bloc state general secretary V P Saini and Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) state secretary Avtar Singh Janjua here today.

The leaders said the reason behind the move was to offer meaningful joint opposition against ruling Congress and ''communal'' Akali-BJP combine.

They also appealed to the two principal left parties -- Communist Party of India (CPI) and Communist Party of India Marxist (CPI-M) -- to part ways with the Congress and join hands with their alliance to strengthen this new political forum in the state.

They said that CPM Punjab(Pasla) would field its candidates on 9 seats while CPI(ML) would contest 10 seats, RSP 8 and Forward Bloc 2 seats.

UNI