The Communist Party of India on Sunday announced candidates for 60 Lok Sabha constituencies, most of them in areas where it has been in the fray earlier.
No names have been announced for Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh.
CPI general secretary S. Sudhakar Reddy said he, along with national secretary D. Raja, would attend a party meeting in Chennai on Monday to decide the next course of action in Tamil Nadu after the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam called off seat-sharing ties with the Left parties.
The party wants to contest the polls with the CPI(M) in Tamil Nadu, but the two will go their separate ways in Andhra Pradesh and Bihar.
Among the seats it has announced so far, the CPI could hope for a good showing in three constituencies in West Bengal, of which it holds two; one each in Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Manipur, and two each in Bihar and Kerala. The party is contesting four seats in Punjab, three each in Odisha (it now holds one) and Maharashtra.
In Bihar, it has an alliance with the Janata Dal (United) but the CPI could not renew its understanding of the previous general election with the Biju Janata Dal in Odisha.
Having supported the Telangana demand, Mr. Reddy said, the party was in talks with the CPI-ML (New Democracy) but it might not go along with the CPI(M), which has opposed statehood. The CPI is fielding candidates for several seats listed as sensitive due to insurgent activity. These include Inner Manipur, Gadchiroli, Chatra, Hazaribagh, Bastar and Kanker.
