Amid invite to CPI, UDF says 'no' to new allies

Thiruvananthapuram: On a day the Congress mouthpiece asked the CPI to join the Congress-led UDF, the ruling front clarified that it was not looking for new allies for now.

UDF convenor P.P. Thankachen said this at a media meet, two days after Congress-UDF candidate K.A. Sabarinathan was elected to the assembly from Aruvikara, defeating the Left Front.

Thankachen said the views expressed in Thursday's 'Veekshanam' daily asking the Communist Party of India, now in the Left Democratic Front, to join the Congress-led UDF was the journal's opinion.

"At the moment there are no plans or any need for having more allies. But the fact of the matter is that the CPI, when with us, enjoyed far greater respectability than now with the CPI-M," he said.

Kerala's Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala, however, said that the CPI was welcome to join the United Democratic Front.

"For that to happen the CPI has to end the blind opposition they have towards the Congress," he said. "It is for them to decide."

The Congress had supported the CPI government led by C. Achutha Menon from 1970 to 1977 and again when CPI veteran P.K. Vasudevan Nair was chief minister for almost a year in 1978-79.

Meanwhile, CPI leader Sathyan Mokeri dismissed the editorial in the Congress daily as of no consequence.

"All along we have been opposed to the economic policies of the Congress and we have been consistent in our opposition to that party," said Mokeri.

CPI-M politburo member Pinarayi Vijayan added: "People who read the article will treat it with absolute contempt."