The Communist Party of India, Marxist, is keeping its options open for an electoral tie-up with even the Congress to defeat the Bharatiya Janata Party, a source told rediff.com soon after returning to the capital from the three-day CPI-M central committee meeting in Kolkata, which ended yesterday.

The central committee meeting was preceded by a day's sitting of the party politburo, on June 6.

"Communalism is the biggest evil and the CPM will not mind going any distance with the single objective of defeating the BJP," the source quoted party general secretary Harkishan Singh Surjeet as saying at the meeting.

According to the source, the central committee, which is the party's highest decision-making body, described the Congress party's initiative to form a secular front against the BJP as a positive step.

Discussing the prevailing political situation with the forthcoming assembly elections in five states in view, the committee said the CPI-M should take the initiative to defeat the BJP while also opposing the anti-people policies of Congress-led state governments.

The party also discussed the possibility of forming a third front, but felt that this option depends on several factors.

It decided to contest a limited number of seats in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Delhi and Mizoram with a seat adjustment with the CPI and some other secular parties, and should also carry out a unilateral campaign to defeat the BJP.

The central committee, which was in session when Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee made his statement about the need to keep politics away from the Ayodhya dispute, accused him of misleading the nation. "How can Mr Vajpayee justify his statement when it was he who moved the court for vacating the stay on the acquired land of the Babri Masjid complex with the intention of beginning the process of temple construction?" Surjeet was quoted as saying.

Accusing Vajpayee himself of politicising the issue, the central committee said the National Democratic Alliance government led by the BJP is trying to undermine the judicial process on Ayodhya.