NCP, BJD differ on joining third front

BHUBANESWAR: Even as the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) leader and Orissa chief minister Naveen Patnaik, on Wednesday, drove home that his party would not support a Congress-led or Bharatiya Janata Party at the Centre, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) made it clear that it was not joining the Third Front and its arrangement in Orissa with the Left parties and BJD was state-specific only.

"I would like to say this is not the meeting of the Third Front, but this is an Orissa specific electoral understanding under the BJD president Naveen Patnaik where the BJD, NCP, CPI and CPI (M) are fighting the polls together. We charactarise this understanding as the Naveen Experiment in Orissa politics and this experimentation will have repercussions in national politics," NCP general secretary D P Tripathy said here, addressing a joint press conference of BJD, NCP, CPI and CPM here on Wednesday.

Mr Patnaik, however, did not rule out the possibility of supporting the Third Front when he made it clear, "We will support only a non-Congress and non-BJP government at the Centre," the CM said. CPM leader Sitaram Yechury said the Orissa Experiment was conceptualized to give the state a secular government under the leadership of Naveen Patnaik.

"All the parties you see here together are determined to offer Orissa a secular alternative. We would like to see Naveen Patnaik continue as the chief minister. As you are aware, in many states people are coming together to form secular front," Mr Yechury said.

The leaders, both Mr Pawar and Mr Yechury refused to take questions beyond Orissa affairs. The NCP president Sharad Pawar said he was in touch with Naveen since Kandhamal clashes took place and since then he was trying to develop a kind of understanding with him. "We were discussing with Naveen since long, particularly after my visit to Kandhamal last year. I realised that some fundamental forces were creating disturbances there, which Naveen wanted to keep at bay," Mr Pawar said, adding, the NCP���s decision to have a pre-poll understanding with the BJD was a "conscious" one.

CPI leader D. Raja could not attend the joint press conference as he could not take his flight to Bhubaneswar, informed the BJD chief. He claimed that his party would get a comfortable majority.