NCP tie-up with Left, BJD is Orissa-specific: Pawar

Bhubaneswar: The Nationalist Congress Party alliance with the Left parties and the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) is 'only Orissa-specific', NCP chief Sharad Pawar said in Bhubaneshwar on Wednesday.

"Our arrangement is only Orissa-specific," Pawar told a press conference in the capital city of Orissa, addressed jointly with Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) politburo member Sitaram Yechury and BJD chief Naveen Patnaik.

Pawar said the NCP remains with the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) at the national level. "We are not part of the Third Front," he clarified.

"We are working as UPA colleague and our understanding here is Orissa specific," Pawar said. "We will see the government headed by Naveen Patnaik gets substantial majority. This composition will definitely show the path," he said.

Yechury said the electoral alliance in Orissa could not be called a Third Front. "It is not a Third Front. We have been repeatedly clarifying that our arrangement is Orissa specific," he said.

Orissa Chief Minister Patnaik assured that the BJD would be with the "secular front" after the elections. "Certainly, the BJD will be with the secular front, we will not be a part of either Congress or BJP led front," Patnaik said.

Holding the Bharatiya Janata Party and its ideological allied organisations responsible for communal violence in Kandhamal district where at least 38 people were killed last year, Patnaik said he had made up his mind much before to snap ties with the BJP.

"They made it untenable," Patnaik said.

Orissa goes to elections April 16 and April 23 to elect 147 members to the state assembly and 21 members to the Lok Sabha.

The BJD forged a partnership with the NCP and the Left parties after they voted for it during a trust vote in the assembly. It has left three Lok Sabha and 17 assembly seats to them.

Pawar had skipped their joint rally here last week citing a technical snag in his aircraft. There was speculation that he had avoided sharing the platform with the Left after the Congress put pressure on him.

However, on Wednesday, Pawar and Patnaik jointly addressed at least four rallies in different parts of the state.

In the rallies Pawar accused the BJP of trying to create communal polarisation in Orissa. Patnaik targeted both the Congress and the BJP.