The Bharatiya Janata Party has decided to extend its support to the Forward Bloc, a constituent of the ruling Left Front in West Bengal, in the Kerala local body elections to be held on October 23 and 25.
"The BJP does not consider this as an electoral tie-up, but an arrangement at the local level for the sake of development," said BJP's state vice president B K Shekhar, who is considered to be the brainchild behind the move, told rediff.com.
When questioned as to whether this experiment will be extended to assembly elections as well, Shekhar said, "The BJP is willing to talk to political parties who are open to electoral alliances."
He added that the Forward Bloc did not enjoy much support in the state, but the BJP did not underestimate it.
Forward Bloc district secretary Arun S Sasi told rediff.com that, "The Forward Bloc is slowly developing its presence in Kerala and does want an electoral understanding with the BJP. "
Arun said that the decision on whether the party will go for an alliance with the BJP in the coming assembly polls will be taken by the party's national leaders. He, however, clarified that the present alliance was only for local body polls and added that it cannot be termed as an alliance instead an understanding at the grassroot level.
It may be recalled that the Forward Bloc's Kerala leadership and the party national general secretary G Devarajan had tried very hard for an alliance with the Communist Party of India-Marxist leadership but it did not materialise.
