CPI(M) open to form alliance with Jayalalithaa again post poll

 CPI(M) is open to a post-poll alliance with AIADMK supremo Jayalalithaa, who has dumped a pre-poll understanding with the Left Front in Tamil Nadu, if her party continues to maintain a non-Congress, non-BJP stance, a senior party leader said today.

"We are open to anyone who is non-Congress and non-BJP. In that case, if Jayalalithaa, Nitish Kumar or Naveen Patnaik continue to remain non-Congress and non-BJP, we are open to them to have a post-poll alliance," CPI(M) Politburo member Sitaram Yechury told PTI in an interview here.

Asked specifically if CPI(M) would forge an alliance with AIADMK after the polls despite the break before the elections, he said the Left parties have been seeking seat-sharing arrangements at the state level with regional parties who were non-Congress and non-BJP., sitaram yechury, prakash karat

"With Jayalalithaa also, we had the same arrangement. She continues to be non-Congress and non-BJP ... We have learnt from Indian history that since 1977, a pre-poll alliance has never formed a government," he added.

On March 6, CPI(M) and CPI had called off their month-old alliance with the Jayalalithaa-led party after getting miffed over ruling AIADMK's "approach" in finalising seat-sharing agreement for the Lok Sabha polls in Tamil Nadu.

Talking about the party's expectations in the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls, Yechury said CPI(M)'s performance would be better this time than 2009 when it won 16 seats.

"In Kerala, we will improve. Tripura, we are going to hold on. We hope to do better in West Bengal also, provided people are allowed to come to the polling booths. The people there are being terrorised even inside their homes so that they don't come out to vote," the Rajya Sabha member said.

He said CPI(M) had got 39 per cent of votes during last local bodies' elections in West Bengal which were "universally accepted as most rigged".