Saturday, June 4 2005 12:20 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Kolkata: The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPM) today (Jun 4, 2005) iterated that it was trying to bring together Congress, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and Lok Janashakti Party (LJP) to avoid a split in the secular votes in the coming Bihar Assembly elections.

Conceding that there was now a split in secular votes in Bihar, veteran CPM Politburo member Jyoti Basu told newspersons that Left parties were trying to forge a unity among secular parties.

"There is now a split in the secular vote in Bihar," Basu said in reply to a question before attending the party's central committee meeting in Kolkata.

"We are trying to avoid this. We are trying to bring together the Left, RJD, LJP and Congress," he said.

The elections in Bihar last February threw up a hung House with archrivals Laloo Prasad and Ram Vilas Paswan failing to come to an understanding. The fractured mandate had led to the imposition of President's rule in the State.

CPM Politburo member Sitaram Yechuri yesterday (Jun 3, 2005) said that the coming polls in Bihar was on the agenda in the party's three-day Central Committee meeting, which began in Kolkata.

Yechury had further said that in the last Bihar elections the Marxists had called for unity of secular forces but that did not happen. ''This time too we want a secular combination to prevent division of votes," he had said.