CPI backs Nitish's decision to return relief money

CPI on Monday backed Chief Minister Nitish Kumar for returning Kosi flood relief money to his Gujarat counterpart Narendra Modi and said Kumar should sever ties with BJP, ahead of the assembly polls in the state.

CPI on Monday backed Chief Minister Nitish Kumar for returning Kosi flood relief money to his Gujarat counterpart Narendra Modi and said Kumar should sever ties with BJP, ahead of the assembly polls in the state.

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"It is high time that Nitish Kumar severed ties with the communal BJP ... It is the lust for power that has kept JD(U) and BJP together so far in Bihar," CPI national secretary Atul Kumar Anjan and state secretary B N Lal said.

They said supporting Kumar for returning Rs five crore aid to Modi does not mean that CPI has entered into an electoral alliance with JD(U).

Likewise, they said, CPI has not entered into any poll alliance with RJD-LJP though it had supported their candidates in the recent biennial elections to Rajya Sabha.

They also said the Left parties together will contest 150 out of total 243 assembly seats in Bihar and dialogues are going on between CPI, CPI(M), CPI-ML (Liberation), Forward Bloc and RSP for seat adjustment.

The CPI has identified 60 seats which it would contest on its own in case of Left alliance did not take shape in Bihar, they said.

Anjan and Lal demanded the Centre to issue a white paper on Bhopal gas tragedy.

"Congress owes an apology to the nation for providing safe passage to Union Carbide CEO Warren Anderson," Anjan said.

He also accused the head of Bhopal Memorial Trust Hospital A M Ahmadi of being a "conspirator", accusing him of diluting charges in the gas tragedy case as the then chief justice of India.