By IANS,
Bhubaneswar : The Nationalist Congress Party alliance with the Left parties and the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) in Orissa is “only Orissa-specific”, NCP chief Sharad Pawar said here Wednesday.
“Our arrangement is only Orissa-specific,” Pawar told a press conference, 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 Progresssive Alliance (UPA) at the national level.
“We are not part of the Third Front,” he clarified.
The NCP’s tie-up with the BJD as well as the Left in Orissa has upset the Congress.
Pawar kept all options open for an alliance with the Third Front in a post-poll scenario.
“It is important that the secular forces come together (in Orissa). I don’t know what will happen tomorrow. We need secular parties to prevail,” he said.
Yechury said the electoral alliance in Orissa could not be called a Third Front. “It is not a Third Front. We are making it Orissa-specific,” he said.
Orissa Chief Minister Patnaik assure that the BJD would be with the “secular front” after the elections. “Certainly, the BJD will be with the secular front,” he said.