<p>Left parties have decided to contest the Bihar polls as a separate front, deploying themselves as one more anti-BJP formation besides the Janata Parivar-Congress combine. <br /><br /></p>.<p>It is also open to supporting Janata candidates in areas where it is not fielding its own. <br />The Left’s response to the JD(U)-RJD alliance was lukewarm, with CPI(M) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury reiterating that the Left had decided to contest the Bihar polls together before the Lalu-Nitish alliance came about. <br /><br />Yechury was also non-committal about participating in talks to form a unified anti-BJP coalition.<br /><br />The decision follows the view within the CPI(M)-led front that the Left has to carve out a separate identity for itself in order to expand beyond its traditional bastions of West Bengal and Kerala and arrest the slide in its popularity in its strongholds other than Tripura. <br /><br />The recent party congresses of India’s two largest Left parties –the CPI and the CPI(M)— also resolved to change the line of thinking by forging a broader Left unity.</p>
<p>Left parties have decided to contest the Bihar polls as a separate front, deploying themselves as one more anti-BJP formation besides the Janata Parivar-Congress combine. <br /><br /></p>.<p>It is also open to supporting Janata candidates in areas where it is not fielding its own. <br />The Left’s response to the JD(U)-RJD alliance was lukewarm, with CPI(M) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury reiterating that the Left had decided to contest the Bihar polls together before the Lalu-Nitish alliance came about. <br /><br />Yechury was also non-committal about participating in talks to form a unified anti-BJP coalition.<br /><br />The decision follows the view within the CPI(M)-led front that the Left has to carve out a separate identity for itself in order to expand beyond its traditional bastions of West Bengal and Kerala and arrest the slide in its popularity in its strongholds other than Tripura. <br /><br />The recent party congresses of India’s two largest Left parties –the CPI and the CPI(M)— also resolved to change the line of thinking by forging a broader Left unity.</p>
