Ruling out merger with any political party currently, Democratic Indira Congress (K) president K Muraleedharan Tuesday clarified that the party would contest all the 140 seats on its own, in the forthcoming Assembly elections.

Speaking at the inauguration of Konni assembly segment leadership training camp, he said the political climate that existed at the time of parting ways with the Ommen Chandy-led Congress, was still continuing.

Hence, there was no question of going back to the parent party.

Muraleedharan predicted that DIC(K) would bag more seats than the Communist Party of India and accused the CPI(M) of diluting the "democratic secular alliance" with Left Democratic Front for reasons best known to it.

"As far as DIC(K) was concerned, that political experiment was a closed chapter," he added.

Stating that the political resolution introduced at the recently held Kerala [Images] Pradesh Congress Committee conclave was hollow and lacked substance, he said those who sought an application from K Karunakaran for "re-entry" had only belittled themselves. The DIC(K) has gained the confidence of the common man and had no fear of facing the assembly elections on its own.

Alleging that the CPI was facing extinction like the "lion-tailed monkey", he wondered why the CPI leaders who once shared the platform with DIC(K) in the Thiruvananthapuram Lok Sabha bypoll, are treating the latter as "untouchable" on the assembly elections eve.

Muraleedharan asserted that the DIC(K) would fight for development policies for the upliftment of the downtrodden.