CPM to support Congress where it is in direct contest with BJP

The CPM on Monday said that in order to defeat the BJP-led alliance and ensure an alternative secular government is formed at the Centre, it would lend support to the Congress in states where it is in direct contest with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)

The party said that in West Bengal, it wont go for mutual contest in the present six sitting Lok Sabha seats which are currently held by Congress and the Left Front.

The Communist Party of India-Marxists Central Committee had earlier decided that the party will adopt suitable tactics to ensure the maximization of the pooling of anti-BJP and anti-Trinamool Congress votes.

At a meeting of its Central Committee here on Monday, it reiterated that its electoral tactics in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections will be based on defeating the BJP alliance, increasing the strength of the CPM and the Left in the Lok Sabha, and ensure that an alternative secular government is formed at the Centre.