Wednesday, October 19 2005 15:31 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Chennai: The Communist Party of India (CPI) today (Oct 19,2005) welcomed Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf's announcement expressing his country's readiness to open the Line of Control for allowing people from the Indian side of Kashmir to join in the earthquake relief efforts.

"It is a correct stand. When both the sides of Kashmir are hit by a major disaster, people to people contact in the rehabilitation should be welcomed," CPI General Secretary A B Bardhan told a press conference here.

Denying allegations in a book by a former KGB man that his party got funds from the erstwhile USSR, he said the authenticity of the documents published in the book was yet to be proved.

"We are proud that we were friendly with the USSR. If we forget that we will become ungrateful as the USSR stood with us in all crises," he said.

He described the exit poll results on Bihar assembly elections as 'motivated'. Two exit polls had totally written off the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) CPI combine and predicted hung assembly, he said and asked how could one judge the outcome of the poll based on a sample survey of 57 constituencies, that went to polls.

Oneexit poll gave one-group 22 seats and another 17, he said and asked what happened to remaining seats.

He reiterated his demand for the recall of Bihar Governor Buta Singh.