The CPI-M on Saturday said it will not forge any alliance with the Congress in the coming assembly election in Bihar but would try to prevent a split in the secular votes.
"The CPI-M had ideological differences with the Congress and just for the sake of secularism it did not wish to join any alliance with Congress. Rather, it would like to maintain equidistance both from the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party," Brinda Karat, the party's politburo member said.
However, she said, the party would try its best to check division of secular votes in the election. And keeping this in mind, the leadership favoured formation of a third front, which was not possible without the Janata Dal (United) participating in it. But unfortunately, the JD-U is not in a mood to leave the BJP, Karat said.
Karat, however, clarified that the third front should be formed on the basis of a policy and not as an electoral arrangement. ''It did not last long when experimented in the past.''
She said her party had decided to go along with the RJD in Bihar and a seat-sharing formula would soon be finalised.
She denied that her party had been responsible for a division in the Left front in the state ahead of the poll, saying that the CPI-M and CPI had contested assembly election separately in the last edition.