Hyderabad: Ruling out electoral alliance with Congress, the Communist Party of India - Marxist (CPM) today (Jan 29, 2004), however, said it would make all possible efforts to ensure the defeat of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its allies and avoid a division of secular votes.

"We will have alliances with other Left parties across the country and appeal to all secular forces including Congress to support us wherever we are in the fray. Similarly, we will reciprocate the gesture," the CPM Politburo member Sitaram Yechuri told reporters in the midst of his party's four-day Politburo and Central Committee meeting.